


Samsara

by silverteaspoon



Category: Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst and Feels, Assassination, BAMF Hyuuga Hinata, Child Murder, F/M, Grief/Mourning, Hinata Reborn as an Uchiha, Hyuuga Hinata-centric, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Torture, It's the mad shinobi world people, Kinslaying, Madara and Izuna Are Great Bros, Memory Loss, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Warring States Period (Naruto), dark themes
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-22
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:33:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 25
Words: 62,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26596846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silverteaspoon/pseuds/silverteaspoon
Summary: “That’s how this works my little descendant," the goddess answered, eyes dispassionate but her voice miraculously conveying a hint of human emotion, "What you wish for is great indeed. One which requires great power and an equally great sacrifice. A give and take. Surely you understand?”Or...Desperate and mad with grief, Hinata made a deal with the Rabbit Goddess, forgetting that the creature was also called a demon.
Relationships: Hyuuga Hinata/Senju Hashirama
Comments: 176
Kudos: 337





	1. Almighty Push

**Author's Note:**

> English isn't my first language and one I don't use frequently so apologies in advance for any grammar or spelling mistakes. If anyone is triggered by anything they read in this work, remember it's just a fiction story people. Just a story I write in my spare time to practice my rusty English, improve my poor writing skills and share my support for the fandom.
> 
> So! Chill!

* * *

She’s floating, drifting in a lake or a sea or perhaps an ocean. She’s not sure which one it was exactly but she knew she’s surrounded by water.

It’s always dark. She couldn't anything but she also knew she was not alone. She's certain of it. There were others with her. One or two, she couldn't tell, only feel. They were there, just beyond her reach.

In the darkness, she heard many things.

The first sounds she recognized were heartbeats. Strong and loud, they consistently thundered so very close to her ears. Strange though, instead of causing harm, they only gave her comfort from her troubles and sorrows. They made her feel safe and far from harm.

Other times, she heard what seemed like human voices but they were always muted and she could never understand a thing no matter how hard she strained her sense of hearing.

Then there were the songs—sometimes happy and sweet, other times slow and sad.

It was a truly bizarre existence. 

She never felt hungry or thirsty. She always felt full though she never ate anything. Though she could not sense the air, she could breathe. Though there was no light, she never felt cold.

Most of the time, the waters lulledher to sleep. During the moments she gained consciousness and tried to make sense of anything, her thoughts flew away like birds so eager to escape from their open cage.

She also couldn't tell how long she’s been in this state—the concept of time always evaded her. It must have been days, weeks or moons. Muaybe even years.

Not that it really mattered. She was perfectly content with everything and was quite happy to stay in her safe little haven for eternity.

But nothing ever lasts—this she'd come to know a long, long time ago.

Hearts break. People die. Nations crumble. Worlds end. Even the stars burn out.

All these things happened under the cold eyes and cold hands of the invisible, invincible and heartless gods that rule over all.

And now, as they were wont to do, those same gods have turned deaf ears to her wishes once more.

They lifted their mighty hands and the world shook the lands moved and the waters in the lake gurgle d and swirled before disappearing, drop by precious drop. Where they were going, she didn't know. Perhaps they'd vaporize or simply flow down the cracks and go to the bottom of the earth, never to rise up again.

Chaos broke the silence of her dark and cozy haven and after a loud battle cry from somewhere which sounded like a great exploding tag in her ears, the other comforting presence she felt for so long vanished.

That’s when she realized her peace and safety have both come to an end.

Then the chaos abated.

But it's only for a very short while. Next thing she knew, she's being pushed, jostled and squeezed by some unknown force—something similar to Pein’s Almighty Push.

 _Almighty Push?_ _Pein?_

She tried to think, to identify where the strange thoughts came from, but her brain provided her no answer and the unknown force steadily increased.

She felt it squeeze her head hard. So hard. It was terrible. It felt like dying.

At one point, she almost suffocated. She had her face, neck and chest almost crushed.

Then, the unknown force was suddenly gone. She felt cold air hit her skin and harsh, unbearable sounds bombarded her ears. Everything wa just so dreadfully loud. 

She next felt gigantic hands grabbed at her and something was being wiped on her face and all over her body, the texture rough and uncomfortable on her abnormally sensitive skin.

She tried to voice her protest against the abuse to her person but her mouth refused to follow her commands.

She tried to open her eyes but she her vision was very poor and she could not see anything clearly—only some strange light and dark shadows and many shades of gray with no discernible shape.

She panicked.

She _has_ to see.

_For what is a Hyuuga without eyes?_

She breathed deep to calm herself then pumpsed chakra to her eyes. One moment the world was black and white, next it was blood red and a pain unlike any other shot to her eyes and her head.

She screamed.

* * *

Madara scowled as he paced impatiently in front of his parents’ quarters, his right index finger twirling a small kunai over and over again.

He’s been worriedly waiting for his father to let him in and allow him to see his mother and new siblings.

He had wanted to be with his mother, but his father had forbidden him from entering and told him that the birthing room was none of his business.

 _But it was my business_ , Madara thought with indignation. _She's my mother._ _This is so unfair. I only wanted to hold her hand and make sure she’ll be alright._

He didn't tell a soul because an Uchiha must always be strong, but deep inside he is afraid. The pregnancy had been difficult to his Lady Mother.

For months, she's been sick and barely got up from her futon. When he visited her at nights to tell her of his training and adventures throughout the day, she always smiled but it was obvious she was always tired.

The healers said he'll have two new siblings, twins, but they all worried that the babes were taking too much chakra from his mother.

A few times, some months ago, he heard whispers saying that the pregnancy should have been stopped, that it might just kill the Lady Uchiha.

But his Lady Mother was one fierce and stubborn woman who refused to listen to the healers’ words.

She said, _active babes in the womb means strong heirs_ and _two precious gifts for the price of one_. His father agreed with her. But then again, he loved her very much and would probably always support her.

He stopped his pacing and stood rigidly in front of the door when he heard several panicked voices inside the birthing room speak up at once.

“By Sage! It’s…it’s the byakugan with the sharingan! What is happening?! How?! How did this happen?” Old healer Ichika spoke loudly.

 _Byakugan what?_ Madara thought with great confusion. _Isn't that the name for Hyuuga eyes?_ _The ones father said were rivals and enemies of the Uchiha?_

“Stop with the useless questions and focus on my daughter first. Her chakra’s going haywire. Do something you idiots!” He heard his father's command, impatience clear in his voice.

“Anata, what’s wrong with our babe?” His mother asked, voice weak and worried.

“It will all be fine Akiko, don’t fret.” His father answered.

“Tajima-sama, perhaps a genjutsu would work?” 

Madara's eyes widened. _Genjutsu on a babe?! Why? Just what is happening?_

“Are you mad woman? It’s too risky. We don’t know how the babe will react to a genjutsu. She might just fight it and endanger herself further”

“Perhaps knock her out then?”

“How?!”


	2. First of Her Name

For as long as Tajima could remember, never has a Hyuuga and an Uchiha joined and given birth to a child.

Since time immemorial, the two most prominent dojutsu-wielding clans have been content to remain on opposite sides, never crossing the wide chasm that separated them. It was not difficult to do so, what with the ongoing heated dispute over the origins of the two bloodline limits.

It's like the never-ending chicken-and-egg dilemma. Uchiha history says the byakugan originated from the sharingan while Hyuuga history claims the reverse.

Until now, no concrete answer has ever been found and he’s quite certain none will ever be found—at least not any that will satisfy the enormous pride of both clans. 

As a result, they’ve been locked in a mostly cold but no doubt intense rivalry over whose eyes reign supreme with no end to the competition in sight.

But now his new daughter has manifested the two bloodline limits and only seconds after her birth at that!

Several hours have already passed and he couldn’t help but still feel at a loss on what to think. There’s absolutely no question over his wife’s fidelity or the child’s paternity.

The babe is his, of that there is no doubt. No damned Hyuuga has ever entered the Uchiha Clan territory and Akiko is one fierce and loyal woman. 

It had been a shock for all of them. Him, the healers and Akiko herself.

One moment the babe’s eyes opened, showing all of them a sliver of curious light gray eyes, the next her chakra flared and rose to an unnatural level for a newborn and huge veins appeared on the sides of her still wet, little red face all the way up to her temples. Then her eyes bled red and her chakra went wild.

The healers were all ill-equipped to deal with the strange and unexpected event. Not that he could blame them—there's never been any record of such a thing happening, not even of a babe activating the sharingan right after birth. They'd all went into a panic over how to deal with the problem.

For several frightening moments, all Tajima could do was stand and shout commands while feeling helpless at the thought of his child dying due to the rapid draining of her chakra.

Thankfully, by some miracle, the babe's survival instinct kicked in. Her eyes returned to normal and she knocked herself unconscious.

“Anata, your brows are about to join and form one ugly line. I’d rather my husband stay handsome. There’s something on your mind, tell me.” His wife’s soft voice broke through his thoughts.

Tajima good-humoredly glared at her before he looked down at the sleeping babe cradled in his arm. “This little girl—I still don’t know what to think Akiko. The byakugan and the sharingan. And did you feel when her chakra went wild?”

His wife’s face turned solemn, “Yes, I did sense her chakra. The highest spike felt almost equal to that of Madara’s. But I didn’t see her eyes Tajima. Are you certain of what you’ve seen?”

“Yes. All the healers saw it too Akiko. The veins that appeared were so large. They bulged so unnaturally at her temples. And the shift of the color of her eyes from gray to blood red then back. There weren’t tomoes but the color could not be mistaken.”

“If she indeed has a…mutated version of the byakugan and the sharingan, then there’s really nothing we can do about it, is there? We’ll just have to accept it and be vigilant in raising her. We’ll have to help her and make sure she’ll be able to handle whatever challenges come her way.”

Tajima’s jaws clenched before he nodded his head in agreement. “You’re right. No use in fretting over something we can’t control.”

A frown appeared on his wife’s lovely face, “I was so tired I fell asleep after the commotion with her eyes. Did you make sure to order their silence on this matter?”

“Of course I did. I’d be a fool not to.” Tajima responded quickly before sighing tiredly once more, “I know you dislike it but I’ll have to tighten the security around the Main House so expect more patrols. No one else can know about this. Two of the most coveted bloodlines possibly held by single child? If anyone else catches even but a whiff of it, all manners of depraved bloodhounds will come panting and salivating near our borders for a chance to steal her."

His daughter will be too tempting a prize for anyone, especially to bloodline stealers from the Lightning and Water Countries. Not to mention how the Senjus and the Hyuugas will react if they catch word of it. They’ll surely see her as a threat to be eliminated as soon as possible.

His wife nodded with a hard look in her eyes, “I understand. Do whatever you think is necessary to protect our children.”

“Hn. Enough with unpleasant talk. What shall we name these two, hm?” Tajima asked before kissing his daughter’s forehead and returning her to her mother’s arms.

His wife’s chin lifted and her eyes held a challenging glint, “You already named our two boys, I believe it’s my turn. And before you say anything, let me just remind you, I suffered carrying two children this time. I demand the right to name them.”

Tajima smirked at his wife’s demanding look, “Aa. And what names have you come up with?”

“Tatsuya for our little boy. Hinata for our girl,” Akiko declared with a pleased look on her face.

“Tch. Tatsuya is fine but Hinata? Too Hyuuga for my taste,”

His wife’s face softened before she looked down and gently caressed the babe’s pink cheeks, “I think it’s her Anata—the sad little girl in the lake I dreamed of and told you about. I don’t know and I can’t explain it but…I think it was her. Perhaps it was some form of omen? The circumstances of her birth certainly are far from the usual.”

“I think it’s disturbing” Tajima commented with a grimace.

“You’re a ninja dear, a name from a dream should be easy enough for you to deal with. Besides, it’s such a beautiful name, don’t you think? Uchiha Hinata. Hinata—a place in the sun. Also, who knows? Her eyes might prove even better than those pompous Hyuuga asses. Then we can all use her name to poke fun at them.” His wife said with a grin.

Tajima snorted and rolled his eyes, “Fine. Fine. Have it your way.”

His wife’s grin turned into a seductive smirk. “Hmmm, don’t I always, Tajima-sama?”

* * *

“What are their names Mother?” Madara asked while watching the two sleeping babes at his mother’s futon with wide, rapt eyes. His little brother Izuna sat in their father’s lap, tired and sleepy after hours of playing.

His mother smiled gently and lifted her pale right hand to point to one babe, “This little one here is a boy and his name is Tatsuya.” Then she moved her hand and gently touched the pink cheeks of the other babe. “And this is your little sister, Hinata.”

“They’re ugly. Like Kenta-ojiisan, Haru-ojiisan and Ichika-baasan,” sleepy Izuna said with a pout.

Madara snickered at his younger brother’s comment.

Izuna was being a brat but he was right. The babies both looked strange and a little ugly. Their heads looked like eggs with a pointy shape to them and were too large for their little bodies. They didn’t have necks.

Like the ojiisans Izuna mentioned, their faces were wrinkled and their hairs were a little funny. His baby brother was almost bald while his sister had a sprinkling of short dark hairs colored very dark blue like their father’s and Izuna’s.

Their father mussed Izuna’s hair and chuckled deep while their mother laughed, her eyes shining in amusement.

“It’s because they just came from my tummy, Izuna-chan. You and big brother also looked like these two when you were born. Give them a few days or weeks and they’ll look cuter.”

Izuna only closed his eyes and dozed off while Madara scrunched his nose.

Perhaps Izuna was born ugly because he could be such a terrible imp sometimes but he couldn’t quite believe that he too looked weird like their baby brother and sister when he was born.

He kept quiet though and instead reached out to touch little Hinata. His mother caught his hand before he could touch the baby.

“Mada-chan, little Hina and Tatsu are both still very delicate so you need to be very careful when touching them, okay? You must be gentle. ”

He nodded his head in understanding before reaching for his sister’s hand gently. It was so small. His mother was right, he has to be gentle or he'll hurt her easily.

All her fingers looked smaller than his pinkies and her skin looked so very thin it felt as if a scratch using his fingernails would make her bleed. To his surprise though, when he put his index finger in her palm, Baby Hinata clutched it tight.

“She’s got a strong grip,” he said with a grin.

He heard his father chuckle deep once more before he felt his large hand on top of his head. “Focus, son," he ordered. "Remember our lesson the other day? Concentrate on her chakra and tell me what you can feel.”

Madara breathed deep and did as his father said then gasped, “She’s…” He turned to his father with eyes wide in surprise, “She’s got lots of chakra Father.”

“Yes. She does have an unusually large chakra reserves for a babe. Now, try and see if you can identify her chakra type.”

He closed his eyes to concentrate better. He tilted his head in confusion when he felt a funny feeling from his sister’s chakra but gave up when he failed to recognize it, “I don’t know Father. Her chakra’s a bit strange. It’s warm so there's fire in her but…there’s something more. Something that buzzes, it tingles. ”

“Hn. Very close.” His father nodded in approval. “She has two. She’s got fire and lightning affinity. Remember the feel of that lightning affinity. It's common to those from Lightning Country. Now try your little brother.”

Madara gently patted his little sister’s hand and let it go then carefully took little Tatsuya’s hand next. He again closed his eyes to study the baby's chakra before opening it and declaring with confidence, “Just warm. So fire affinity!”

Father smiled and nodded, “Good. You’re learning. Keep at it.”

Madara grinned wide, feeling happy with his father’s praise. Then he remembered the strange words during the birthing and haltingly asked “I heard something…strange…when I waited for you to let me in last night father.”

He stopped then looked his father in the eye, “I heard Ichika-baasan said something. Byakugan and sharingan, she said. The Hyuugas have the byakugan right? Why does Baby Hinata have it?”

Father turned to look at their mother then looked at him with his serious _Lord Uchiha Face_. “We too don't know how it happened but yes, to your question, it seems she has it. Or it could have been a fluke, we're not really sure as this is the first this has ever happened. We'll see more when she grows older. For now, don’t speak of it outside of our house, not even to your cousins and friends. If word spreads, your sister could be in great danger. We have to protect her. Do you understand?”

Madara sat up straight and looked his father in the eye, "Yes father. I'll do my best to protect her too."


	3. Death and Rebirth

Slowly, over time, the sounds eventually became more tolerable and easier to understand and the range of her sight increased—but only a little. With these two very important senses turned somewhat functional, she was then able to grasp what it was exactly that’s happening.

And reality came crashing down like giant boulders atop her head and the world fell apart under her feet once more.

_Pein. The Push._

No wonder she thought of them.

She could remember it all now.

The Leaf was attacked and was brought to its knees like never before. Her friends and family, strong people she grew up knowing—defeated. Some lying on the ground and unable to fight. Some unconscious or on their way to death’s door. It was chaos and destruction of a magnitude unlike any she’s ever witnessed before.

Then there was Naruto pinned to the ground. And there's the strange but monstrously powerful man called Pein.

With the little knowledge of the Akatsuki she possessed and her byakugan, Hinata knew very well that the difference in power between her and Pein was like comparing a glass of water to an ocean.

But Naruto was restrained by those terrible black rods, about to be killed or taken. So she jumped into battle. Not because she thought she could win, no. She only meant to help get rid of those things and be the distraction to give Naruto a chance.

She tried so hard. She gave it her all. She fought like she never did before and it was all for naught. She proved once more to be an utter failure. Pein simply stood there and toyed with her. She wasn’t even able to do any significant damage, much less free Naruto.

She fought. She failed. And she died.

_She died._

The ensuing realization brought forth such a raw ache that felt like a poisoned lance through her heart. A wail built and built and built. From her chest to her throat then out of her mouth.

Gone. _Everything_. Just gone.

Naruto and all of her hopes and dreams for the future turned to dust.

Did he even survive? Or was her final act of failure another nail in the coffin that would lead him to his own capture or death?

Hanabi. Her precious sister. If by some miracle the Leaf won and she survived the attack, her little sister would have to face the heavy burden of leading the Hyuuga Clan, surrounded by the ambitious, selfish and manipulative elders of the council.

And Neji. Her beloved brother. She dearly hoped he won’t blame himself for her death and continue to move forward.

Kiba, Shino and Kurenai. Her Father. All her other family and friends.

All of them beyond her reach now.

She didn't even get to say goodbye, not even a few final words. And she’ll most likely never see them again. Never again.

But here she was, alive. A baby.

Rebirth. Reincarnation. She knew little about the concept and though she’s never witnessed it in the past firsthand, she never discarded its possibility.

She’s been reborn. She’s a baby. A newborn one.

It’s all so very strange. She felt so frail, so powerless. She’s herself but with her fragile body--she didn't _feel_ like herself.

As though waging a war of its own, her body refusesd to follow the commands of her brain. She could not perform the simple task of lifting nor turning her head. Her little arms or legs refused to cooperate properly. Her mouth wasn't moving the way she wanted it to. All she could do was blink her eyes, close-open her hands and weakly twitch her legs.

Despite the decent amount of chakra she could feel at her core, she’s constantly fatigued. She slept most of the time. When she found the energy to open her eyes, she’s constantly hungry and thirsty to the point of feeling starved.

And the rest of the time? She drooled like a loon and soiled her clothes and feebly waited for people to take care of her. It’s an exhausting and utterly mortifying existence.

And the people around her—they’re all strangers. There weren't any Hyuuga among them. She has failed to see even a single white eyeball. All she saw were dark hairs and dark eyes.

There’s a woman named Akiko. A man named Tajima. Two boys named Madara and Izuna. And another baby constantly sleeping by her side named Tatsu. Her twin, she found out. 

Amidst all these, the only truly familiar word she hears is _Uchiha_. She's heard it so many times now she’s lost count.

But she’s quite certain there wasn’t a single Uchiha left in Konoha. Uchiha Itachi has massacred the clan and went on to become a missing nin and Uchiha Sasuke left the village years ago in pursuit of power to defeat his brother. Was she somehow reborn as an Uchiha? But how?

Wait.

_Madara. Madara. Madara._

Why did that name sounded so familiar? Was that not the name of the legendary Uchiha Clan leader during the time the Leaf was formed? The one said to have rivaled the First Hokage Hashirama?

It hurt to think. Her brain felt thick and heavy like the earth after a lengthy rainy season. Most of her thoughts--or maybe memories? They didn't make sense. Perhaps she’s just trapped in a powerful genjutsu Pein's strange eyes casted on her? Or perhaps she’s simply losing her mind.


	4. Growth and Goals

After sleeping, feeding from her stranger mother’s teats and many more embarrassing growing-up experiences for months on end, after constantly stretching her uncooperative limbs for so long, she finally gained some control of her body.

She’s now able to support the weight of her own head and turn it side to side without wobbling. She didn't have the capacity to stand yet but she could already sit up on her own and crawl fast now! It made her feel like a pathetic worm but, _progress_!

She tried to speak early but it’s hard to control her tongue and she failed in regulating the air in her chest and mouth. It always ended in her drooling so she stopped to avoid further humiliating herself.

After months of practice, she's now able to feed chakra to her eyes and activate her byakugan without any pain and could see everything within almost twenty meters. With it, she could now see through walls, spy and read lips and catch snippets of conversations between the woman Akiko (her mother), Tajima (her father) and the boy Madara (her older brother).

When she finally connected the pieces of the life and time she’s now living in, she regretted it and wished she’d remained ignorant a little while longer. For ignorance was bliss while her new knowledge did nothing but turn the already mad world even madder.

_She’s in the past. She’s been reborn in the Warring States Era. And yes, she’s now an Uchiha._

She’s living in the time of legends. Of the God of Shinobi and future First Hokage Senju Hashirama and his brother the Second Hokage Senju Tobirama. And yes, she’s a younger sister to that legendary Uchiha Madara. Konoha and the other shinobi hidden villages didn't exist. Not yet, at least.

She also hasn’t forgotten her lessons.

_It’s the age of Uchiha vs Senju wars._

It’s all a mess. From the frying pan into the fire. With her current form, there was no escaping any of it.

Here’s the plain and simple truth: She’s not a genius like Shikamaru who could practically think a hundred steps ahead in almost any given situation or Neji who could create plans A, B and C with ease in a minute. She didn’t even possess Sakura’s sharp smarts or Shino’s cold logic.

She’s just Hinata.

So she did what she could, what little she could do: She broke down her insanity-inducing situation to more coherent pieces and came up with a goal she could focus her mind on to keep herself from falling down the deep, dark hole of madness.

So first, the facts.

She died but got reborn with her memories somehow intact. Or maybe not. Her memories might also be incomplete. She needed to consider this at least.

Second: She’s now Uchiha Hinata. She’s no longer a Hyuuga and though she’s retained the byakugan, she’ll have to be careful not to touch any Hyuuga-related topic with a hundred feet pole.

And third, everything is suspect. It could all be real or it could simply be an elaborate genjutsu.

And her goal? To be strong. To be powerful. To learn as much as she could.

No more hesitation. No more holding back. She could not afford to be weak and powerless once more, not when there's so much at stake.

Her overwhelming defeat and death at Pein’s hand was enough lesson to open her eyes to the truth that if she wanted to go back and protect those dear to her, if she wanted to influence and help bring about change, then she must have the strength and power to do so.

She needed to be strong and powerful to survive her new environment. She’s living in an extremely dangerous time period. Here and now, peril was everywhere. Outside of the Uchiha territory was a kill or be killed world.

And if the words she heard from her new father about her eyes are true—that she carried not only the byakugan but the sharingan as well—then there would surely be plenty of ambitious men who won’t hesitate to hunt and kill or use her for their gain.

When the right time comes, she’ll have to be strong and powerful enough to either break the genjutsu (if this reality proved to indeed be nothing but an illusion) or create a space-time jutsu so she can return to her proper place in time.

Her brain hurt just thinking about it but she'll give it her best. There's nothing left to do but try.

If she failed, then she'll just focus her efforts in ensuring, perhaps even hastening the peace between the Senju and the Uchiha. Once peace was achieved, she could then ask for help. The Shodaime Hashirama was always said to be not only powerful but generous and kind and Nidaime Tobirama was a genius in creating jutsus. With perhaps some help from Madara and Lady Mito of the Uzumaki Clan famous for their sealing powers, she might be able to return home.

Yes, that’s the big picture. That’s her Grand Plan.

* * *

“Aren’t you a little marvel?” Tajima laughed while gently bumping noses with the wide-eyed babe in his arms.

It’s the truth. His daughter was indeed a wonder.

He’s seen many children as the Head of the Uchiha Clan and has had plenty of experience with his older sons but he could, without a doubt, tell that Little Hinata is different.

Months gone by and his daughter has grown so much. She’s a very pretty babe. Dark blue hair like his. Heart-shaped face like her mother’s. Pouting, pink lips like Izuna. A button nose.

And her eyes. The light grey eyes have changed and given way to a beautiful lavender—a color no Uchiha recorded has ever possessed.

But that’s not all that made her unique.

The sharingan may have not made another appearance but his little girl has proven that her byakugan was no mere fluke.

The first two months, it didn’t make any appearance but by the third month, it did.

He and his wife had both been alarmed at first but their worries greatly decreased when little Hinata showed control over it.

Somehow, his daughter instinctively knew how to activate and turn it off by herself. She’s always activating it now, making it a daily habit for longer and longer periods of time.

For months, he has scoured the old Uchiha scrolls for any information to better understand his little girl’s situation and found out that extensive training was required for Hyuugas to be able to activate their byakugan.

That his daughter was capable of doing it all on her own— it’s uncanny but very impressive indeed. He’s admittedly very curious to know what she could see with her eyes.

Her chakra too was extraordinary. Like his heir, his daughter has impressive reserves for a baby. Her constant activation of her byakugan and the use of her chakra was helping in enlarging her pool by the day.

Hinata was a mostly quiet babe. She cried so much during her first month but after that, she rarely made a sound, only making huffing noises when she’s hungry or needed her clothes changed.

She’s still a quiet one but with greater mobility developed over the months, she has become very active. She’s now awake and alert for longer periods of time.

Strangely, she paid no mind to the colorful toys her mother put near her bed and instead preferred to sit up or crawl everywhere—following after her mother and brothers, turning her head this way and that with her beautiful eyes wide open and taking in everything as though studying her surroundings and the movements of people around her.

And just now, she’s decided to follow him. He had bent to pick her up and return her to her mother but she surprised him yet again by grabbing tight at his pants and saying ‘Up, Tou-sama’.

Tajima grinned. Her first time speaking and she gave him an order and called him father.

Oh Akiko would be so envious.


	5. Baby Steps

She blearily wakes up warm and snuggled to something firm but soft, her nose pressed to clothing that smells of lilac. While she yawns and tries to blink away the sleep from her eyes, she hears Akiko talk.

There is slight irritation in her voice so Hinata decides to play possum. She closes her eyes again and listens to the conversation.

“It’s unfair, is what it is. I’m her mother. I carried her for months. I feed her from my own breasts. But she spoke to you first, called you father first and now she clings to you more?”

“She’s a smart girl, I’m sure she knows what she’s doing,” Tajima answers, his tone teasing.

She hears Akiko snort then she says, “Hm, just you wait dear. I’ll be certain to pay you back this debt and I’ll make sure to make it good.”

Tajima laughs, “Now koi, don’t blame me. I didn’t force or manipulate her to do anything.”

Hinata hears Akiko sigh before she feels a gentle hand caress her face. “She is growing up so fast. Too fast. I wish she’d slow down and be like other babes.”

“You’re not happy she’s showing signs of intelligence and developing quickly?” Tajima asks with confusion.

“I’m just concerned Tajima,” Akiko answers, worried. “Tatsuya is only just starting to crawl and chewing or playing with his toys but Hina is already starting to manipulate chakra in her hands and using the walls as support to walk. I’m almost expecting to catch her one of these days crawling not on the floor but on the walls.”

Tajima chuckles before he responds, “Other mothers would be crowing with pride, Akiko.”

“Oh don’t be mistaken. I am proud, so very proud. But she’s just a baby—and not even a full year old! I know she’s special but this…is just too different. She never cries anymore but I have never seen her smile or hear her laugh either. She’s always so serious, Tajima. Always so determined to do what she wants. She’s always crawling or toddling after you or Madara. She ignores her twin brother, even Izuna. She hasn’t paid a single attention to her dolls all this time. She’s already talking. It’s just too fast. Even Madara acted like a baby and laughed and cried and tried to eat his toys.”

“Well, what exactly do you want me to do about it Akiko? Like you said, she’s a babe. It’s not like we can just order her to stop growing.”

“You can start by refraining from carrying her with you to the training yards. By sage, you yourself told me she watches Madara spar with her byakugan active! Isn’t she a bit too young to be in the yard with you boys?”

“And what’s wrong with that?” Tajima asks, tone one of bewilderment, “It is good exercise Akiko. Don’t you feel how much her chakra pool has grown? And besides, isn’t it better to just let her be? I am not worried about our daughter growing up fast and learning how to defend herself young. No, I am actually relieved. We are Uchihas. We are ninjas. And we are surrounded by enemies who will not hesitate to kill our children. You know all of this.”

“I just…She’s only a babe. I fear she’ll bite more than she can chew and get hurt in the process or simply burn out so young,” her mother whispers.

Tajima’s voice is gentler when he speaks next. “That’s what we are her for—to keep our children safe as much as we can but also to teach them to be strong enough to survive this world and surpass whatever challenges they meet. Our little girl so far has done nothing truly dangerous. She seems to have strong instincts and knows when to stop. Let’s not hinder her growth, let her explore her capabilities. If she does something that’ll harm herself, then we’ll play interference.”

After hearing her new father’s words, Hinata feels relief course through her. She stops listening and instead quietly contemplates about everything she’s heard.

So her mother thinks she’s growing up too fast. She has to do a better performance. She needs to slow her pace a little and act more a child than an adult to avoid too many eyes observing and judging her.

Being considered a genius is not all sunshine and rainbows. If anything, in the shinobi world, it just leads to great suffering and early death. Dying young is not in her plans.

She’ll have to be careful to stay in the lane of admired and adored instead of envied, feared or hated. Envy, fear and hatred make situations complicated and drive people to do irrational things. If she’s not careful, she might soon find herself stabbed in the back with a kunai with her eyes gouged out.

It’s good she heard this conversation. It’s helpful to have parents who are concerned for their child’s well-being.

It’s been so long since she felt a mother and a father’s love and care. Far too long. Yes she can vaguely remember Hyuuga Hitomi being a loving mother but she died so early and all Hinata was left with were fading memories, a cold house, a borderline abusive father swallowed up by grief and duties to the clan, an innocent baby sister that needed protection from the cursed seal, a council of harsh and manipulative elders that always judged her and put her down and a broken family held tight by the horrible cursed seal.

That she somehow got lucky and was born to loving and caring parents this time despite the circumstances is a relief but aside from that, she doesn’t know how to really feel about it.

She is of course thankful that her new father clearly is open-minded and will support her endeavors. That means she’ll be able to pursue her goals without hindrance. She’ll be able to climb the walls and watch him, Madara and Izuna train and perhaps, she might even be able to join them once she can walk properly.

But her new mother’s worry makes her feel a bit guilty. The woman is very patient and caring and loving and for that, Hinata does not want to cause her heartache.

To be kind—it’s the least she can do to repay Uchiha Akiko. But to create a bond with her brothers, her new family, knowing that one day she’ll break the illusion or leave it all behind?

_What would be the point?_

* * *

The moment they entered the room and was greeted with the scene of their little sister walking with wobbling knees while using a small wooden sword as a stick, Madara immediately knew to catch the back of Izuna’s shirt to keep him from doing something careless.

“My sword! Give it back!” Izuna predictably screeched,

“C’mon little brother, don’t be stingy. Just look at that, Hina has found the perfect use for your toy,” he said with an amused laugh.

“No! She got her toys. Dolls. Sword is mine. Mine! Lemme go nii-san,” his younger brother snapped while trying to get away.

Madara rolled his eyes at the display.

Izuna has turned even brattier now that he has to share their mother’s attention with the growing twins. The younger boy is especially jealous of Little Hina who’s clearly become the apple of their father’s eyes. He has no doubts that, had he been given the chance, his little brother would have surely gone and forcefully snatched the toy from their sister’s hands, possibly knocking her down in the process.

Knowing his hotheaded brother won’t stop until he got his toy back, he let go of him then quickly took the few steps to reach their sister. He placed an arm around her tiny waist to support her up then gently took the sword from her hands and handed it to the fuming Izuna.

“Here, brother, take your sword now and stop being angry. You know Hina is just a baby learning to walk. She didn’t take your toy to keep it, she only used it to help herself maintain balance. Right hime-chan?”

“Hai! Sorry Izu-nii,” Little Hinata spoke, large eyes showing remorse.

When the smaller boy only scoffed before marching away, Madara rolled his eyes once more then turned his attention to his sister and smiled. “Why are you alone? Where is mother?”

His sister tilted her head cutely and answered, “Tatsu. Bath.”

“I see. A walking stick Hina-hime? Going somewhere?” he asked with a grin.

His sister’s lavender eyes lit up. “Train? Please?”

He chuckled and fondly mussed her dark blue locks. “You want to watch me train again huh? I swear you’re more excited than Izuna when it comes to training. Alright. But you have to promise you’ll behave. Father’s gone so you’ll have to sit still while you watch.”

“Yes nii. I behave,” the little girl agreed with a serious nod.


	6. Families Old and New

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just as I indicated in the tags, this story will be exploring pretty dark topics that were glossed over in the manga and anime which means certain shinobi and clan practices will later on be discussed. Right now, it's all cutesy and stuff but do take into consideration that the pov used is limited. For example, Hinata has already seen and has firsthand experience of the cruelty that exists in Hyuuga Clan so her views about them are pretty harsh. On the other hand, at the moment, she only sees the good in the Uchiha so her views of her new family is still positive. But as she grows older, gains more experience and knowledge, that will change. In no way am I biased to any clan in the Naruto world so you can rest assure that I'll do my best to treat them all with as much fairness as I can.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west then repeat. The moon turns from a thin, curved bow into a sphere then back again. The flowers bloom and wilt and die and the colors of the trees change from green to orange and red to brown and then they fall only to go over the same cycle.

Soon, she and her twin turn three years of age and she wonders…

About the Uchiha and the Sharingan and Pein’s strange purple eyes.

The Uchihas are known masters of genjutsu. Using their sharingan, they can cast illusions that could last for years inside a person’s head with only a blink of an eye passing in the real world.

If she does possess the sharingan, when she learns to activate it, will she be able to differentiate what is real and what is not? Will she discover the line between the genjutsu and the reality? Will she find where one stops and the other starts? Or will the illusion be like the ripple pattern of Pein’s eyes? Circles without beginning or end? Infinite like the number 8?

She badly needs to know.

Her byakugan is stronger now. She has increased its range to about three miles and can also adjust it now to view at a microscopic level, same as before. She has also trained herself in recognizing any chakra.

And yet, she still can’t see anything that can prove that the life she’s living, the world around her and the people she’s with are all products of someone else’s imagination.

A family with people that love and care and treat each other as a family should—it’s what she’s dreamed of for so long, what she fervently hoped for in a future life with Naruto.

Now, in a strange turn of events (or perhaps a sadistic twist of someone else’s mind) she has it—the family she wished for. They’re not who she thought of or asked for but she has them. And it’s slowly messing with her heart and head.

She knows she shouldn’t, knows there’s no point. But starved of love and care of a mother and a father for years on end, her heart can’t help but fall for Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Akiko. She can’t help but grow fond of her big brother Madara and adorable baby Tatsuya and even the little imp Izuna.

After the death of her mother and her uncle Hizashi, her father, Hyuuga Hiashi, got swallowed by his grief and buried himself in his duties as Clan Head as a means to cope. He became cold and distant and harsh in his treatment of her. He forced her through a training regimen that constantly hurt and caused her young body to turn blue and purple and yellow. When she could not lift herself from the dojo floor, he deemed her weak and called her unworthy of the great Hyuuga name.

Then he pushed her to fight her little sister. Her little sister! What kind of a father pits his two children like dogs in a fight? How could he have expected her to defeat little Hanabi with the knowledge of the curse seal dangling over their head? And the worst? When she chose to lose to her sister again and again, he told her that she could die for all he cared. It all had been hellish torture to her young mind, heart and soul.

Many times, she thought of just putting an end to it all but refrained for the sake of Hanabi. She didn’t want to leave her sister behind, alone and without anyone to give her love and care and provide support while she carried the weight of the entire clan on her young shoulders.

But now…now she has Uchiha Tajima and Uchiha Akiko and with every day, every month, every year that goes by, her stubborn, foolish heart ignores the orders of her brain. And it’s hard. So hard.

Tajima always looks at her with love and pride, pats her forehead before going to sleep every night, holds her in his arms when he has the chance, talks to her in strong but gentle tones, calls her his little princess and guides her hands and feet while she goes through simple fighting stances.

Akiko constantly showers her with kisses and hugs and words of love, gives her warm baths and soothing rubs, brushes her hair every morning and at night, teaches her to read and write, looks at her with worried eyes as she cleans her skinned knees and arms after a tumble in the training yards.

Madara is brash and blunt but always kind, sometimes overbearing but very protective. The more they grow older, the more he reminds her of Kiba, Shino and her Neji-niisan. He’s strong. So very strong. Her advantages stand inadequate in the face of his mind, power and talent. His chakra pool, his battle genius, his body strength and his speed—they all surpass hers and will continue to do so as time goes by.

Izuna is a brat but he’s now her brat. A talented and bright boy with a strong competitive streak, he’s always looking for ways to challenge and defeat her. With his looks and his drive, he reminds her very much of Uchiha Sasuke and a bit of her beloved sister Hanabi.

She has the advantage because of her years of knowledge and experience but there is no doubt that her brother is on his way to becoming a formidable shinobi. If she grows complacent and relaxes, he’ll definitely overtake her.

Tatsuya, her twin—such a sweet boy with a contagious laughter, always toddling after her and their older brothers.

She knows firsthand what it’s like to be compared to a more talented sibling, has experienced the pain of being judged weak and a failure. She doesn’t want that to happen to her twin. She takes care not to leave him behind, makes sure to include him in her ventures and teaches him some of what she knows.

And now there’s cute Baby Kenji. One more boy to add to her collection of Uchihas.

She still has her eyes on her goals. She still clings to her plans.

But why is it that every step forward makes her feel like she’s falling behind? Was this Pein’s master plan for her? Is this how he intends to finish her off? To have her break down, give in and die happy in this beautiful and painfully perfect illusion?

* * *

Tajima watched with rapt eyes as Hinata twisted her small body to avoid Izuna’s fist while reaching forward to strike her brother’s outstretched arm. His son tried to step back but his little sister was faster and struck with her fingers three times in rapid succession.

The effect was immediate, Izuna’s arm fell limp.

“Ughh! Hina, not this crap again.” His son loudly complained.

His daughter halted but remained wary and out of her brother’s reach. As she should. Izuna has done this trick two times before—stopped fighting and pretended defeat only to launch his own assault when his sister got close.

Tatsuya snickered at his brother’s obvious defeat while his heir scoffed from beside him. “You were careless Izuna. You were too hasty and only thought of delivering another blow, not taking into account that Hina can see much better than you. Now stop whining brat. Sit down and I’ll show you how to fight better.”

“No one asked you niisan.” Izuna glared at his brother before pouting at his sister, “You win but I want a rematch when I get to feel my hand again.”

Madara stepped forward and took his little brother’s place. “You’re not too tired yet to spar with me, are you hime-chan?”

Little Hinata grinned, gap tooth showing. “No. Let’s fight nii-san.”

“Go Hina! Fight!” Tatsuya cheered.

“Oi Hina!” Izuna called out, “You better not hold back against niisan or you’ll make me look really, really weak.”

“Quiet brat. Watch and learn,” Madara said with a smirk before turning to face his sister and taking a stance.

Little Hinata’s face turned even more serious, her hands outstretched, eyes fierce and the veins at her temples looking harsh.

It was Madara who made the first move.

The two are five years apart in age and Madara is undoubtedly leagues better at bukijutsu, ninjutsu and genjutsu but at taijutsu, his little girl is proving to be a formidable little beast.

It’s a bit of a surprise that Hinata has taken so well to taijutsu but it quieted his concerns for her safety. It gives him reprieve to know that if in the future, if she encounters an enemy, even if she’s left without weapons, she’ll be able to fight and win with just her eyes and hands.

The byakugan and its perceptive capacity, the range it can cover… It’s certainly a powerful bloodline and can give anyone a run for their money. He now has a better understanding of how it works and can see why the Hyuugas are being proud peacocks and damned assholes about it.

With her byakugan, his daughter can see everything around her and thus can anticipate any attacks. She matched it with her decent speed, great agility and a combination of chakra-powered fists and fingers that can jam tenketsu points and paralyze her opponent.

His two older sons enjoy it immensely. They love the knowledge that their cute little sister can give them a challenge and won’t be a crybaby if she gets hit.

Madara in particular loves battling his little sister’s all-seeing eyes with his own speed and enjoys the thrill of trying to avoid his sister’s mean fists and fingers trying to shut down his tenketsu.

Izuna simply likes fighting all out and making every spar a competition to be won.

Little Tatsuya still has more growing up to do and requires training before he can pose a challenge. But with the lessons Madara and Hinata has been giving him lately, Tajima is confident he’ll also be strong.

“Hah! Your eyes are really good but you need to work more on your speed little sister,” Madara said with a grin after spinning over his sister’s head and flipping her down to the dojo floor.

“Alright good work. But that’s enough taijutsu spars for today,” Tajima declared.

“But father! I still have to pay Hina back,” Izuna protested.

“No. I said enough taijutsu. We’ll work on your ninjutsu now until dinner. All of you follow me to the lake,” Tajima instructed before turning around and walking off, expecting his children to comply.

There’s no time to waste. Men under the bastard Senju Butsuma intercepted and killed an entire team of Uchiha youths on their way for a supply run.

Soon, the conflict will intensify once more and battles will commence. He must make sure his children are prepared.


	7. Turning Pages

Another year passes and she’s four and her somewhat peaceful, idyllic life as Uchiha Hinata ends.

 _Shi_ for death. It’s fitting.

Here’s what happens.

After the death of the three youths, men of the Uchiha Clan deliberately hunt down children of the Senju in retaliation. The Senju does the same and on and on it goes. Over just a few months, the hostility erupts into regular skirmishes and battles.

With the deaths and losses piling up, her father, to her horror, decides to start sending Madara and Izuna to missions.

She knows that the Warring States Era is a harsh period that bred even harsher people. She knows that while she plays and trains and spars with her brothers, other children only a little older than them are going out on missions and are either killing their enemies or getting themselves killed.

But Madara is only nine and Izuna only seven! So very gifted and so very strong yes, but still only children.

“Madara is the heir to the Uchiha,” her father says with hard, dark eyes. “If he is to lead the clan one day, then he must first learn how to serve now. He must prove to our people his mettle. He must show he is capable to fight and defend our clan from our enemies.”

“Izuna is young, yes, but he will be Madara’s second someday,” he says next. “He will be your eldest brother’s sword and shield. It is better to have him learn how to do so while he is young.”

“And you, my daughter,” he lifts her chin up and looks down at her, “You will continue training. You will continue to grow strong while you guard our home with your eyes. And when the time comes, I trust you will support your brothers too.”

Then he walks away with his head held high and his strong back straight. She looks and looks but there’s almost no trace of the father she’s come to love. There’s only _Uchiha-sama_ , the Head of the Clan.

She wants to call out, to plead, to convince him to let at least Izuna grow a little bit more before throwing him in such dangerous situations but she knows it’s useless so she bites her tongue. Her mother has already done the same for her second brother and not even she—with her sad, worried eyes and secret bitter tears—has succeeded.

Once more she feels helpless, so powerless for being inside such a young body. For no matter the power, the genius and the skills he sees in her, no matter the pride he feels for her, she is still but a child. His little girl. And her words have little to no value in the face of it all.

She wants to be angry, to cry, to rage. But she knows it’s pointless so she straightens her spine, clenches her hands and bites her trembling lower lip until she feels the iron in her mouth.

Fight or fall. Live or die. Endure the pain and the losses and keep moving ever forward.

This is the way of their world. This is the life of a shinobi. Their gift and their curse. Their glory and their tragedy. All bound together like tangled strings with no way to unravel.

There’s no escaping it. The only choice is to face it. And Hyuuga Hinata or Uchiha Hinata—she knows better now than to close her eyes from the truth, to turn her face from the reality of the world.

* * *

It’s a painful thing. To watch her brothers get fitted for their armors. Dark blue metal plates serving as protective guards covering their thighs and little chests. The back of their high-collared blue robes proudly displaying a red and white fan, the Uchiha crest.

“Do you not have confidence in me? In my strength?,” Madara smirks while mussing her hair. “I am Uchiha Madara and I will defeat any enemy who thinks to stand before me. So cease this useless worrying, little sister. I’ll always come home.” He says with the utmost confidence.

“I know you are strong.” He is, he really is. She’s using all her past knowledge and doing all her best to be stronger too but he’s now moved beyond her reach. Not even her Byakugan is enough to keep up. “It’s not really you I’m worried about nii-san. It’s Izuna.”

“What?!” Izuna erupts, “Oi Hina! Are you calling me weak?”

She sighs at the offense painted on her brother’s face. “I am not calling you weak. You are strong. But you are so young still and prone to carelessness sometimes.”

“May I just remind you I am already seven and almost three years older than you?” Izuna asks with a glare.

“That's just it. You are only seven. Seven. And out there will be men who are two, three, four times older than you. With years of experience more than you.”

"In the shinobi world, age doesn't matter. Even years of experience sometimes don't matter. Only strength and skill do." Izuna responds heatedly.

“Enough” Madara orders in a hard voice, one that’s starting to sound imposing each day that passes. “Hinata is right, Izuna. Do not be so careless.”

“I may not have all-seeing eyes but I can tell you both now, your concerns are unnecessary. I can handle myself.”

Izuna turns around and walks away and she remembers parting with people she loved without goodbyes. She catches his arm a bit desperately and looks him in the eye.

“Brother, I love you. Please, I just want you to be safe. Be careful and always come home.”

An illusion or reality. It doesn’t matter anymore.

* * *

They go on mission after mission, each one more dangerous than the last. But though they always return, they’re never the same boys they were before.

Here are the ones that she sees as beneficial: Every day that passes they are more powerful. They grow taller and gain muscles. They are stronger, faster and even more determined to develop their techniques. During trainings and spars, it gets harder and harder to keep up with them.

Here are the ones she’s uncertain of how to feel: Madara becomes even more serious, more protective, more possessive. Always asking about her day and needing to know her every business.

Izuna, on the other hand, turns softer, kinder and somewhat melancholy. He doesn’t smile or laugh as much anymore and is now more prone to just sit with her in calm silence.

Then here are the ones that make her worry: Madara develops insomnia. Izuna gets bad dreams. Dark bags start to form under their eyes. Bruises and little scars appear on their arms and little chests.

One night, Izuna returns home with a large gash on his arm. She watches as the healers try their best to fix him and finds herself dissatisfied with the extent of their knowledge and skills. She decides then to improve her healing techniques, if only to be able to help her brothers and members of the clan in need.

She’s not Sakura or Ino. She’ll never be able to match the medical skills of Senju Tsunade’s apprentices. But she’s a believer of hard work and she does know a little about healing. She knows how to make the Hyuuga Clan’s secret ointment and other remedies and she also knows the basics of the Mystical Palm Technique—something she took time to learn so she could heal herself and her teammates whenever necessary.

When she proposes the idea to her father, he denies her at first but the support from her mother and her brothers are enough to change his mind. He gives her permission but with the condition that if her healing pursuits interferes with her development, he’ll put a stop to it. She agrees of course and becomes even more determined to prove herself.

With her own training schedule, her time with her brothers and her basic knowledge, it is slow, hard work. But it’s all so very worth it.

Her presence, at first, bothered the rather aged clan healers but over time, they grew to like her. She starts by asking questions and observing them first. She learns and adapts what they’re doing well and over time works on what she’s learned in the past and shares them with others.

Slowly, the conditions in the healing wards improve and more people are given better services. Her healing ointments become a staple for those going out on missions and she even gains a small business out of selling her products. It’s nowhere near the future Konoha Hospital’s level but it is big improvement compared to what was in place before.

Then, before the year ends, her mother gives birth to another boy and dies in childbed.

Everything goes from bad to worse.


	8. Siblings and Bonds

The Uchiha Clan’s territory is a fortress that sits at the base of a mountain with vast forestry of coniferous and deciduous trees such as pine, cedar, cypress maple and oak trees. It’s a beautiful place to call home and at the same time, a strategic one, as the layout gives the clan several opportunities for escape in the event of an attack.

The structures are concentrically arranged and, unlike the Hyuugas who prefer aesthetic and traditional homes and buildings made primarily of wood and shoji paper screens, the Uchihas chose function over form and use a mix of wood, stone, bricks and mortar in the construction of theirs—a necessity, for a clan where children learn to breath and are prone to set things on fire at a very young age.

At the center of it all stands the Main House where her family resides. They have their own gardens, their own spacious training yard and family dojo. Surrounding the main residence are several more dojos, the barracks, the armories, the granaries and the healing ward.

Next layer are more training grounds where everyone—men, women and children—can spar against each other or hone their individual techniques. These grounds also serve as venues for wedding feasts and other celebrations.

The outermost part and the largest section by far consists of the residences of the clan members. Unlike the Hyuugas who live communally, the Uchihas prefer to live on their own so there are individual homes for every conjugal family. It’s also in this section where small bodies of water such as a few ponds, a small lake and a stream can be found.

Beyond the clan members’ houses is a plain where more civilians under Uchiha protection build their homes and grow their crops. The area also has a trading post set up where anyone, clan member or civilian, can sell their wares and products like pottery and glassworks, fabrics and textile and clothing, and food.

During the earlier years of her life as Uchiha Hinata, many parts of the Main House were mostly forbidden to other members of the clan and her father normally conducted shinobi-related business in the barracks.

There were only two helpers to assist with the chores like cook, clean, wash the clothes and help with the house upkeep. Her mother took care of the rest, especially her and her siblings’ rearing. With their trainings done in their own yard and dojo, she and her brothers mostly kept to themselves and as such had limited contact with the rest of the clan.

When Madara and Izuna started going on missions, they saw a gradual change. With Madara learning the ropes of leadership and Izuna learning how to support him, more and more areas of the house became open to other clan members.

In the wake of their mother’s death, more relatives of Uchiha blood come to visit, even live with them. There’s their Aunt Ayaka, who’s also their father’s first cousin. She lives with them and takes care of the newborn Kiyoshi and the toddler Kenji. With her is their young cousin Hikaku who becomes a playmate and sparring partner to her and Tatsuya.

But... although more people live in the house and many more come and go, with their mother’s presence gone, the house now just feels lonelier, emptier.

* * *

She blinks tiredly and puts down the medical scroll she’s been reading when she hears the sound of footsteps approaching her room. When she activates her Byakugan, she sees it’s her twin with the toddler Kenji clinging to him. She notices the toddler is in tears and hurries to open her bedroom door and welcome them in.

The moment Kenji sees her, he almost flies to her arms and sobs at her neck.

“Shhh…shhh,” she tries to calm the little boy. She squeezes him to her with one arm and uses the other hand to gently pat his small back while she looks to her twin and asks, “What happened?”

“Bad dream. He woke me up with slaps and asked for mother, Hina. I tried getting him to Aunt Aya but he refused so I brought him here. You always know what to do,” her twin answers, his small face showing his own sadness.

Hinata closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. “Alright. I’ll take care of him. He can sleep with me.”

“Can I sleep here too? Please?” her twin asks with a hopeful look in his eyes. “I’ll be good. I won’t kick or punch you. I promise.”

“How will you know if you’re asleep?” she laughs but allows her twin to her room and her spacious futon.

Exhausted from crying, Kenji easily falls asleep between them. Tatsuya on the other hand remains awake and after a while, decides to talk to her about his own worries.

“Ne Hina, they’re always going out on missions. Madara-nii and Izu-nii. And Father is always so busy. Who’ll train us now? How will I get stronger?”

“Hm? You don’t like training with me and Hikaku-kun?” she asks with eyes closed, voice teasing to lighten the heaviness she feels and help ease her twin’s doubts.

“Of course I do. But Kaku isn’t that strong. You… you are strong but…you’re a girl Hina,” he says awkwardly.

She opens her eyes, turns and props her head on one hand and gives him a playful glare before she reaches out to pinch his cheek, “Tsk. Are you thinking less of me because I’m a girl? I can still beat you anytime, anywhere. Want to test it tomorrow?”

His eyes grow wide and he looks worried. “No! That’s not it, Hina. Don’t be mad. I just…I just…” he trails off, looking frustrated, clearly not knowing what words to use to express himself properly.

It’s sad. It’s like her life is playing on repeat only with so much more to worry about. And to add to the painful twist, her twin now also suffers the same fate.

She remembers being five years old, with a dead mother, a newborn sister and a father lost to his grief and duties to the clan.

She and her twin are now five years old, with a dead mother, a newborn brother, the clingy toddler Kenji, two older brothers she can’t help but worry about and a father lost to his grief and duties to the clan.

It’s heartbreaking and frustrating and many more things at the same time. And in a house full of boys grieving in their own ways and looking to her for comfort, it gets a little hard to breathe sometimes. She sometimes can’t even find the time to grieve on her own for the woman she’s learned to love as a mother.

“I know. Stop worrying and go to sleep brother. I’ll do my best to talk to Father and Madara-nii and Izuna too. I’ll try to arrange something with them.”

It is silent for a while and she thinks he’s on his way to sleep but then, Tatsuya shuffles closer. “Ne Hina,” he whispers, looking embarrassed, “Do you think I’m stupid? Because we’re twins. But you always know what to do and say and I…I don’t.”

She feel her breath catch in her throat and her chest goes tight as if someone’s reached out to squeeze her heart in their hand. She feels miserable. She never meant for this to happen. Never…This…

Heart twisting with guilt, she looks at him fiercely, “No! Don’t ever think that. Do you hear me? Never ever think that. I’m maybe ahead right now but you’re smart and strong on your own. And you’ll grow even more and improve and if you work hard, you can surpass me, even Izuna and Madara-nii.”

Surpass them and become what? Become a faster thief? A better killer? To go out strong enough to kill children like him?

She feels wretched even more. She’s told herself to face it but it’s hard. Truths and lies…it’s so hard to separate them when their world is such a mess—when their reality is so harsh and their lives are so short.

“Are you sure Hina?” he asks, eyes wavering between hope and doubt.

She reaches for his bony shoulder and gives it a firm squeeze. “Of course I am. You’re my brother, my twin. We have the same mother and father. We were formed at the same time inside mother’s womb. There’s no reason why you can’t be just as good, if not better than me.”

“But—“

“No buts. Have faith in yourself, Tatsuya, not doubts. Doubts will only hold you back and keep you from becoming what you want to be.”

And it’s the truth. She’s experienced it after all. Has seen it in many people. Like Gai-sensei, Lee and Sakura. Bloodlines may give someone an edge but trust in oneself, determination, a strong conviction—these are really what help a person achieve their goals.

He looks grateful then he pouts, “You don’t feel like my twin. You feel like an older sister. You should have gone ahead and made yourself a twin to Madara-nii or Izu-nii. Why didn’t you?”

She laughs, throat still tight, “That’s not how it works, Tatsu. And, well, I didn’t really have a choice.”

* * *

She jolts half-awake to a new presence in the room and instantly reaches for the kunai under her pillow. When she focuses her eyes, she sees Madara leaning on the opened shoji door. He looks weary and his chakra feels lower than she’s ever felt before.

“Hina, help. My room,” he murmurs in a low voice before turning away.

She gasps when she sees blood on his back, the part that’s not covered with his armor and activates her byakugan only to see two deep wounds. She gets up swiftly and gathers her medical supplies from a closet as quietly as possible to avoid waking up her brothers and follows Madara to his room.

“What happened nii-san?” she asks quietly while watching him remove his top before lying face down on his bed.

“Two dead Senju bastards,” he answers darkly.

She sighs and starts working on his back, ignoring his flinch when she cleans the wounds first.

“Where is Izuna and Father?” he asks in a tired voice.

“Izuna’s gone to Sora-ku with others for munitions supply. As for Father, he’s on a mission but I don’t know where.”

“Bastard,” Madara says with a scoff, “So he’s gone and left you with the little ones.”

“He’s still grieving nii-san,” she whispers, “In the only way he knows how.”

Just as Hyuuga Hiashi had done. Uchiha and Hyuuga. Almost the same.

She wishes it wasn’t so. The boys are similar but also so different from Hanabi. She can only do so much. They need their father.

“It’s been almost half a year Hinata!” he growls heatedly, “He expects us to get over mother’s loss and do our duties but he goes and ignores his? What happened to being strong? He should be over it by now.”

“I…I don’t think it’s your strength that determines how you get over something nii-san—it’s what you lose. And father has lost the person he loved…still loves the most.”

“Stop making excuses for him,” he snaps. Then he exhales loudly before speaking sadly, “We all loved mother.”

“Yes we did. We all still do. I’m not making excuses for him nii-san, just telling how I see it. It’s different for him, I think. Remember they were together years before we were born. Mother was his wife, the love of his life. His greatest friend and keeper of his secrets. Perhaps half his heart and soul. Now she’s gone and he’s in much pain. Imagine being in his place nii-san. Imagine being left behind with half a heart and soul and knowing you’ll never be complete again.”

She tells him all these to help him understand. She’d been so young when Hyuuga Hitomi and Hyuuga Hizashi died and took parts of her father with them, leaving her a different man she didn’t understand.

“Fine. Fine. I don’t like it but I’ll try to understand. But I’m not going to accept this for long. Another half-year, that’s all I’ll give. He’s got to pull his head out of his ass“ he grumbles. Then he turns his head to look at her with assessing dark eyes, “How do you do it? It’s your eyes, isn’t it? You see more and say the most honestly painful things sometimes little sister, I don’t know if I like it or not.”

“Hm. I’m not telling you these things to change your feelings or force you to do things, niisan. You’re entitled to your own feelings and choices after all.”

“I know. Enough about father. How have you been doing? How are the boys? Why were they in your room? Did something happen?” he fires his questions one after the other.

“It’s…almost the same. Kenji had a bad dream last night and refused to go to Aunt Ayaka so Tatsu brought him to me.” Then she remembers her words to her twin, “Niisan, I know you’re busy on missions. But when you and Izuna-nii are home, please, would you spare some time helping Tatsuya train? He’s feeling ignored and has expressed doubts about becoming strong himself.”

“He still has a long way before he can defeat you,” he points out.

“Yes, but a sister is different from a brother. He sees me as his big sister and, sometimes, his mother now. And, the difference in power and skill between us makes him doubt himself. He needs more time and attention from you big boys. He needs assurance from you, else he’ll think he’s useless and suffer even more.”

Her twin is starting to develop an inferiority complex because of her. She’s determined to undo it. She’ll not stand by and watch her brother suffer like Hyuuga Hinata had.

“This…this should be father’s responsibility,” he mutters angrily then sighs again, “Alright, I’ll spend time with him later. And you? Your healing and training? Do you still have time to train? How far can you see now?”

“Thank you,” she squeezes his shoulders in appreciation. “I train in the mornings with Tatsu and Hikaku-kun and some after lunch. The healing lessons are still in the late afternoons and before bed. It’s close to five miles now.”

“Good. It’s getting worse out there little sister. Always stay alert. I won’t be surprised if Butsuma Senju starts sending men to attempt attacks in our home.”

This is Uchiha Madara, the future head of the clan. He’ll someday make peace with the Senju but only after so much death and loss. She sees a chance and takes it with two hands.

“Uchiha and Senju hunting children like game and taking pride from killing each other. It just goes on and on. This has to stop nii-san.”

“I know. I’m tired of it too. If I could, I would. But Father, the elders, the others…they’re all so stupid and stubborn.”

“When you become Clan Head, will you make peace your first priority? For our brothers, for the other children. For our people.”

He takes a deep breath, “I’m not even sure if I’ll ever see that day little sister, with the way things are. If I do live and become head, yes, I’d push for peace.”

“Will you promise to do it even if the rest of us, your siblings, die?”

He stills, “The hell are you saying?”

“All of this—the killing. It’s almost impossible to stop because people keep justifying it as duty or justice or vengeance for loved ones lost. If I die, brother, I don’t want you to go on fighting because you think it’s your duty. I don’t want you to go on killing because you think it justice or vengeance. I would rather you try even harder to make peace in my name and make sure my fate is not suffered by others. I would rather you build a legacy better than the one our forefathers left us, a greater inheritance you can pass down to your children someday.”


	9. Lessons and Losses

The next two years drag by so slowly and yet, at the same time, seem to pass so swiftly before her eyes.

Being a young girl without a mother, with a distant and workaholic father and five brothers constantly vying for her attention at different times and in different ways is exhausting work—harder than even training and working on her taijutsu, ninjutsu, bukijutsu and the healing arts. The strenuous emotional toll alone is enough to make her feel like she’s carrying a mountain on her shoulders.

First there’s Kiyoshi. Though their Aunt Ayaka plays the role of his nurse and caretaker, Kiyoshi, young as he is, seems to now notice that their father pays him very little attention and that the rest of them, though in good terms with their aunt, clearly don’t rely on her for supervision. As a consequence, the toddler is always underfoot, follows them around to get their attention and constantly demands they include him in their activities. He particularly seeks her out the most and can be very difficult when his wants and needs aren’t met.

Then there’s Kenji. Her younger brother still remembers their mother—hazy though his memories are. He still longs for her and as a result, refuses their Aunt’s attention most of the time. He instead clings to her and treats her as the mother he and lost. He’s a very possessive child, always competing with their youngest brother for her time and attention.

It pains her—to see them both like this. It’s not enough. It will never be enough. But she tries to be what they need. How can she not? She’s gone through the same loss twice now. She knows what it’s like to be young and without the love and care of a mother.

Then there’s Tatsuya. He’s become a quiet, sullen boy prone to vacillate between moods like seeking their father’s approval; feeling love, respect and envy at the same time for her, Madara and Izuna; feeling a mix of pride and dissatisfaction with himself; and feeling sorry and annoyance for their two younger brothers.

He is by far the most complicated with her brothers and though he is still very close with her, his feelings of personal discontent gets in the way most of the time.

In the beginning she tried very hard to address the issue but stopped when she noticed that her attempts just seemed to make things worse. She doesn’t know what to do with him, in truth. All she can do is let him know she loves him and that she’s there if he needs her.

Izuna, thankfully, despite being only ten, is now more matured and has cut back on his quiet moods. He still spends more of his time on missions and training with Madara and other boys older than them but tries very hard to be her partner in helping their younger brothers simply by playing or training with them. They’re now closer than before and have become each other’s confidant.

Then there’s Madara. He’s growing to be really serious and authoritative to all of them. Because of the amount of time he goes on missions and clan heir training, the time he spends with the younger ones is rather limited and he relies on her and Izuna to constantly give him reports of their day to day lives.

Their father is…very complicated. He’s there but _not really there_. He’s now full-on Hyuuga Hiashi 2.0. He interacts with them but in a detached way. He also spends more time to train the younger boys but treats them like a war commander would his subordinates. In very rare instances, he would show affection, especially to her, but these moments don’t last very long.

* * *

Amidst the mental and emotional chaos, she finds some semblance of order by following a routine.

Early in the mornings, an hour before sunrise, she wakes up for taijutsu training. When Madara and Izuna are home, they all train together. When they’re not, it’s only her, Tatsuya, Hikaku and sometimes Kenji. After two hours, they join the rest of the family for breakfast.

After breakfast, she spends an hour or two with her younger brothers. The activities they engage in vary. Sometimes they play or swim at the lake but most of the time it’s spent on more training. Hand to hand spars. Hand seals and basic katon training. Ninja wire, kunai, shuriken and senbon throwing. Basic swordsmanship lessons.

In her case, she continues to work hard on her taijutsu, ninjutsu and bukijtsu techniques.

The good thing about her juuken fighting style is that the Hyuugas of the Warring States Era have not quite fully developed it yet. Yes they do specialize using Gentle Fist but the forms they’re currently using are what the Hyuuga Clan of her old life would call as “outdated”. They haven’t even developed the Twin Lion Fist and Air Palm yet—techniques invented around the First and Second Shinobi World Wars which are years after Konoha was, rather, _will be_ established. 

However, just to make sure she won’t be accused by her former clan of _hiden_ technique theft in the event she encounters a Hyuuga, she’s training to combine the Gentle Fist with the Hard Fist style—particularly Lady Tsunade’s and Sakura’s style.

She knows enough now not to simply settle with the Hyuuga taijutsu. As effective as the Gentle Fist is, the style is very constrained and has limited range and impact. The one used by the Godaime Hokage and Sakura on the other hand was just as strong—if not stronger—due to the overwhelming damage it is capable of making.

It is hard work but thanks to her greater chakra reservoir, control and the byakugan, she’s able to figure out how to channel the right amount of chakra through her pathways and learns over time how to mold it in her fists to make the devastating punches. She is now capable of making small craters. With more training and perhaps years of experience, she might be able to cause the same damage as the two strong women she’s taken her inspiration from.

For her ninjutsu training, she mostly focuses on using Fire and Water Jutsus. With Madara’s and Izuna’s help, she’s now able to use a few Uchiha Clan Fire Techniques such as the staple Great Fireball, Dragon Fire and the Phoenix Immortal Fire. For Water techniques, she’s now capable of Water Needles, Water Wall and Water Dragon.

As for her Bukijutsu and Ninja Tools Techniques, there is of course the use of kunai, shuriken, ninja wires and explosive tags. With her previous knowledge and experience, use of these tools has come as easy as breathing to her. She’s also learning swordsmanship at the insistence of her older brothers.

In the afternoons and early evenings, it’s all about healing. Learning and teaching and experimenting with medicines and poison and antidotes.

Months after she shared the Mystical Palm Technique with the healers of the clan, after seeing its effectiveness, more of people of the clan, young girls especially, became interested in learning.

Though unable to see the chakra points and the entire chakra network, the sharingan is capable of seeing chakra flow. Added to this, most Uchihas have very good chakra control thus it’s not so difficult to teach them the technique.

With the advances made to their ointments, medicines and technique, there is a marked decline in the death rate of those needing serious medical attention among Uchiha shinobi. This medical advancement has also led their clan slowly gaining a good reputation in healing and gave them another avenue of adding to their coffers by expanding their healing ward to accommodate more people seeking their services, particularly civilians.

* * *

She is about to start teaching her two distant cousins Natsuki and Emika the healing palm technique when she feels acute unease run down her spine. She stops to look up and around but sees nothing alarming.

“Hinata-sama? Something the matter?” Natsuki asks.

She shakes her head and focuses on the two older girls before her. “Aa. I…it’s nothing. I thought I felt something. Anyway, let’s continue. Emika-chan, you’re already able to activate your sharingan, aren’t you? Try to observe my chakra flow so you get a better idea of how this technique works.”

The girl nods and does as she asked while Natsuki pouts. “So a sharingan makes it better? Does that mean if I don’t have a sharingan, I won’t be as good?”

“No, definitely not. The sharingan gives you a small help but it's not really required. What’s more important is your chakra, your control and your determination and dedication to heal.”

She looks the older girls straight in the eye to impress upon them her seriousness and smiles when they both nod with the same determination in their eyes.

“I’ll demonstrate it once more then I’ll let you two try it, alright?”

Two dark heads nod at her while two pairs of equally dark eyes look down to watch her demonstration.

She takes the live, slippery and wriggling fish from the bucket and places it on the tray and proceeds to make a small cut on its squirming body when she feels the same unease again, worse this time.

 _Gut instinct_ , Kiba called it. _Shinobi sense of danger_ , Shino refuted. _Whatever it is, do not just ignore it. Your body, your intuition—they sometimes know better than you do_ , Kurenai advised.

She stops and clenches her jaw at the unwanted sensation then decides to activate her byakugan, immediately hearing loud gasps from the two girls before her.

“So it’s true! You really do have different eyes! The byakugan!” Natsuki speaks up excitedly.

She ignores the comment and instead goes about adjusting the range of her sight to observe her surroundings better.

“Hinata-sama?” Emika asks.

“A moment please,” Hinata mutters as she scans the entire Main House and the training grounds. She relaxes a little when she sees her father, Madara, Tatsuya and Hikaku training in the dojo but her agitation gets worse when she fails to find her younger brothers. She increases her range and nothing. She increase it some more and still nothing. Not in their usual play grounds. Not in the gardens. Not in the neighborhood.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” Natsuki asks, voice a bit worried this time.

“I…We’ll have to stop for now. I feel there’s something wrong,” she says and goes for the door of the healing ward.

“Hinata-sama!” Emika calls out worriedly.

“Not now please, cousin. Let’s do this tomorrow,” she says then swiftly takes her leave of them.

She continues scanning the entire Uchiha territory while running and breathes a sigh of relief when she finally locates her Aunt Ayaka, Kenji and Kiyoshi at the lake, swimming and without a care in the world.

Strongly misliking the disquiet she felt moments ago and her training with her cousins already interrupted, she decides to go and join them, wanting to be close to her younger brothers to help get rid of the unwanted feeling.

Not wanting to attract more attention from curious and possibly secretly judging eyes and minds of clan members, she deactivates her byakugan and navigates the path leading to the lake when suddenly, a loud explosion rang in the air, the location of the blast close to the direction of the lake.

Unease now turned to acute dread, she stops for a beat and feels her stomach fall to the bottom of her feet. Then, her heart suddenly lodged in her throat, she activates her byakugan while pumping her legs, increasing her speed to the highest level. She immediately locates the lake and sees…

“NO! NO!”

“Hinata-sama!”

“Hinata-sama! What—“

She blazes through the path between the residences of her kin, ignoring the calls and the presence of others joining her mad dash through the street to the tree line, the lake meters ahead.

“Hinata!”

“Hinata!” she hears her father’s and Madara’s strong, demanding voices call out but she ignores them both just the same.

When she reaches the lake, she feels her knees give out and she chokes on her breath when she finally sees. Sees everything with sharp clarity.

The fallen leaves. The wet green grass. The bleeding lake. The unrecognizable body parts blown to pieces and floating...

She hears two thuds behind her followed by sharp intakes of breaths. Kenji and Kiyoshi. Her little brothers’ names. A loud, anguished curse.

She feels an acute pain in her head and her eyes.

And no more.


	10. Lifetimes and Worlds

In the void, in the silence, in the dark—the memories come like a shower of fallen stars—blindingly bright like a thousand suns and she…she is the hopeless fool that got too close and slowly burned alive.

She remembers. _Lifetimes. Worlds. She_ _remembers._

Hyuuga Hinata. Hyuuga Hanabi. Hyuuga Neji. Hyuuga Hiashi. Hyuuga Hitomi. Hyuuga Hizashi. The Hyuuga Clan. A house divided, rotting at its core. Masters and Slaves. The Curse Seal. Cursed cold white eyes that see everything but are almost always powerless to do anything. Always the beginning. _Always_.

Konoha. The Academy. Genin Teams. Chuunin Exams. Friends and comrades. The fierce fights. The dangerous battles. The powerful enemies—Orochimaru, Pein, the Akatsuki and many more. All the same. Always the same.

The War. The Fourth Shinobi World War. Countries and villages united. People from different lands working together, eating together, dying together. _Neji_. 

Livelihoods destroyed. Homes ruined. Families and loved ones sundered. Corpses and corpses piling up. Dead people reanimated to help fight the living. The Juubi. Obito. Zetsu. Madara. Kaguya. The Infinite Tsukuyomi.

Then, she remembers the many paths she’s taken after.

She remembers blonde hair and blue eyes. Remembers how he was always the first. Bright and burning and full of hope like the sun rising in the East. A boy turned man, fearless and strong. A defiant, determined whiskered face always turned to the sky. Always chasing after his dreams.

She remembers years of quiet love and longing. Then, a love finally requited. Perfect weddings on beautiful summer days with family and good friends in attendance. Happiness she thought would never last. And children—such precious children. Golden and dark hairs. Wide, bright blue eyes. Loud contagious laughter and such beautiful smiles. Little boys named Boruto and Minato and Jiraiya. Little girls named Himawari and Kushina.

But just as the sun rises, the sun also sets. She remembers lonely years down the line…Duty over love. Village over family. And in the aftermath…Quiet homes. Cold rooms. Half-empty beds. Distance and dissatisfaction. Unbearable silence. Unhappiness and bitterness and regrets. Slow, excruciating heartbreaks that never let hearts break even. From lover and wife to a mere afterthought—a small forgettable footnote in someone else’s history.

She remembers the vast desert. Remembers the fiery red hair and gorgeous green eyes. The word love engraved on a forehead. A mad, blood-thirsty boy turned to a quiet man of charisma and integrity and strength. Of kindness and understanding and infinite patience.

She remembers awkward interactions then quiet friendships built on respect, then attraction, then love. She remembers the numerous trials and tribulations—meddling elders, complicated village politics, lengthy agreements and even assassination attempts.

She remembers lavish wedding ceremonies for the Kazekage and a Hyuuga Clan Heiress. Rowdy celebrations in the streets of the Village Hidden in the Sand. Two villages united, bound closer than ever.

She remembers gentle eyes, gentle laughter, gentle smiles. Always so achingly gentle. Strong arms that enveloped her and gave her a safe shelter from the desert storms. A mouth that never failed to tell her of his love. Lips that woke her up with kisses in the morning and when she went to sleep at night. Redamancy—a love returned in full. And wonderful children—serious, dutiful little boys with her hair and their father’s eyes and beautiful little girls with their father’s hair and her eyes.

She remembers dark hairs pulled up and intelligent dark brown eyes always seemingly bored but always knowing. Easy friendship turned to quiet romance. Slow but steady and strong.

She remembers secretive glances over a precious little girl’s head. Gentle laughter and small smirks after sarcastic remarks. Countless naps shared together. Long games of shoji she never won. Passionate and lazy moments in the stillness and the shadows of the Nara forest. Fond memories of making medicines with his fierce mother while having conversations about his wise departed father.

Simple and quiet wedding ceremonies. Joy and contentment. Peaceful moments working side by side. An almost preternatural understanding in dark brown eyes. Words of support. Useful advices. Furtive looks of encouragement. Long, sinewy arms that always welcomed her. Children with her eyes and their father’s smart mouth and mind. Simple, easy lives despite both their positions—just like they both always wanted.

She remembers an entirely unanticipated fork in the road. Remembers one black and one purple eye. Journeys of self-discoveries and redemption. Paths crossing again and again and again. Quiet curiosities. Cautious interactions. Unexpected discoveries. Shared experiences. Beginnings of something new.

Love—first muted and slow turned fervid, intense. A passion that burnt like the dark flames of Amaterasu. And she happily burnt every night and rose from the ashes when came light.

She remembers fire and electricity dancing on her skin. A strong hand that held her close to a warm body at night. Ardent kisses that always took her breath away. Frenzied lovemakings under the moon, under the stars, in dark forests, beside lakes, under waterfalls.

She remembers secret weddings and whispered—sometimes unsaid—promises. Power and strength and loyalty and devotion offered to her above all. And children, with the mix of hers and their father’s eyes—beautiful children named Mikoto and Neji and Shisui. But never, ever Itachi—because Konoha and the Shinobi world is a place without justice, a place with very little understanding and kindness, especially for the feared but fallen Uchiha Clan. Their Clan. Her Clan _now_. 

She remembers many homes—a small beach house in a hidden cove in the Land of Waves. A cabin tucked on the side of a mountain in the Land of Lightning. An underground lair in the ruins of the Land of Whirlpools. A secret basement in the Land of Sound. Simple but warm homes far from the eyes of people who only knew to judge, who would never understand.

Most of all, she remembers the last wars—the wars to end all wars. And she remembers losing them all, one by one. Fallen like pearls from a severed string.

She remembers fighting and fighting and fighting—she who has always despised conflict. She remembers watching all the men she loved fight and fall. Remembers cradling the corpses of her children. Remembers burying them in shallow graves. Remembers looking for the dead bodies of other loved ones lost and never finding them.

She remembers journeys abruptly ended. Stories finished but incomplete. Partings without goodbyes. Endings without happily ever afters. She remembers living and dying and being reborn again and again and again. She remembers and remembers and remembers and wishes she’ll once more forget. To be finally granted an eternal sleep.

 _Be careful what you wish for_ , her mother and Kurenai-sensei said, a long, long time ago. Lifetimes and lifetimes ago. She wishes she had heeded their words. She wishes she hadn’t been a fool, hadn’t let her despair and desires rule. She wishes she had been wiser and rejected the goddess’ offer.

Pein. It all makes sense now why she remembers him the most. The ripple pattern of his rinnegan. The circles. Samsara—a suffering-laden cycle of life, death and rebirth without beginning or end.

And Uchiha Madara—the reincarnation of her husband and lover—once the enemy and now her beloved brother. The deluded madman who thought once to save the world by casting an Infinite Tsukuyomi. She understands him better now.

It is far more tempting to live in a perfect infinite dream than to exist in the real world with a heart as small as two fists but filled with loss and emptiness and despair as vast as the universe.

* * *

Sat rigidly on a chair by Hinata’s bedside, Madara frowned and watched with tense muscles as his little sister’s eyes continued to make rapid saccadic movements beneath her lids, droplets of blood flowing down her wan cheeks like tears. Tatsuya who sat on the other side was quick to wipe the blood away from his twin’s face with a wet cloth.

“It’s been a sennight. This isn’t normal, is it? Backlash from sharingan awakening normally doesn’t take this long. The person may pass out for hours or perhaps a few days but…a week? You’ve also activated your sharingan, nii-san, the same time as her and it only took you a few hours,” Izuna murmured while leaning on the wall by the window, eyes on their sister.

He took a deep inhale and exhale before responding, “I don’t know, brother. I really don’t know what’s happening either,”

Izuna was right though. What’s happening to their sister was indeed a cause for concern.

What happened at the lake with their little brothers…it also caused his sharingan to finally awaken. One eye with one tomoe and the other with two. But he didn’t suffer any prolonged pain. He hasn’t even fallen unconscious.

But Hinata had and she’s been in a disturbed sleep for days now—seven days since…since the cruel tragedy that’s befallen their little brothers and their aunt.

All the clan healers have already seen to her and none had been able to figure out what’s happening. Everyone was in agreement though that it may have something to do with her eyes.

The pattern of their sister’s new eyes were unlike any of them has ever seen or read in the historical records of their clan. One was closer to a sharingan, red and black but with the tomoe seals shaped differently—like a flower-patterned pinwheel. The other eye was silvery with a blue pupil and an iris with a more intricate floral pattern. Not only that, a strange black mark shaped like a diamond had also appeared in the palms of both her hands.

Mayhap the strangeness was a result of her having the byakugan? After all, Hinata having it despite being an Uchiha was already an unprecedented occurrence so perhaps they shouldn’t be surprised she’d have a different sharingan too.

He didn’t know and didn’t really want to worry about it yet. What he worried about was the length of time it’s taking her to wake up.

She could have died...She…could have died. He felt wretched and guilty for feeling it—for being thankful that his sister was just a little slower. That she did not make it to the lake and joined their younger brothers in death.

He loved all his brothers. He did. But Hinata was his only sister and perhaps the only person whose perceptive eyes saw far better and could understand him most of the time. Losing her would be like losing their mother all over again, only worse.

“I’ll kill every single Senju I get my hands on for what they’ve done. I swear it. I’ll kill them all. Slowly,” Tatsuya growled hatefully.

Madara closed his eyes then pinched the bridge of his nose tiredly. “Tatsuya, calm down. You’re not killing anyone yet. You’re not even going anywhere yet.”

Tatsuya’s face twisted to a dark scowl. “Calm down? Not going anywhere? How can you tell me that? Kenji was only five and Kiyoshi not even three. They were practically still just babies, Aniki. It’s not right. They need to be avenged.”

Madara’s face hardened and he gave his younger brother a warning look. “Don’t remind me of their ages, I remember perfectly well how young they were. And don’t talk about vengeance. You’re only seven, brat.”

“I still don’t understand how it happened. How a Senju got inside our territory. Why no one aside from Hina felt any threat,” Izuna interrupted, obviously playing mediator.

Madara quieted as his hands clenched. That’s been eating him up, every day and every night—that he hadn’t felt anything at all. His sister, younger by five years, did far better. Their female cousins reported that Hinata felt something was wrong, stopped the healing lessons and searched using her byakugan. Many clan members reported seeing her running to the lake before the explosion happened.

And him? He had been laughing while Tatsuya pummeled Hikaku to the dojo floor. What a disgrace. To call himself a shinobi, a big brother, only to fail when it mattered the most. And now they have two dead little brothers whose ashes were put in little urns at the Naka shrine.

He and his father had personally scoured the entire perimeter of the lake to find out more as to who the perpetrators were and only found two kunais with Senju crests on the handles.

Their father had been in a rage since, wanting to attack and collect payment for the atrocious debts the Senju committed against their family but…Hinata has not woken up ever since that terrible day. So here they were, all on edge and every one of them practically vibrating with fury and worry.

“Her eyes keep bleeding and she seems to be in great pain even while unconscious. I just wish she’d wake up and end this wait already,” Tatsuya whispered, more calm this time.

* * *

She opens heavy lids and swollen eyes with her regained memories swirling, pounding, and splitting her head. She blinks slowly, painfully and when she focuses, she instantly notices the difference.

Everything looks far too sharp—the shapes, the colors. The tiny spider crawling up a thin white string, about to return to its web on the ceiling. The faint scratches and small grooves on the wooden beams. The faint, small spots on the wall facing the foot of her futon.

“Hinata!” she hears someone call out, a worried voice far too loud for her ears. Izuna, she recognizes.

His voice is followed by a few hurried steps approaching her and after a few blinks, she’s staring up at relieved faces looking down at her. Madara, Izuna and Tatsuya.

 _Sasuke_ , she thinks with acute ache now that she knows exactly the true weight of her losses, _they look so much like Sasuke. Like my dead and lost sons._

“Hina, can you see me? Can you hear? How do you feel? It’s been—“

“Not too loud, Izuna. Sister, how are you feeling?” Madara asks.

“Nii-san, water. Please,” she croaks out, feeling an overwhelming thirst and hunger pangs in her stomach.

“Of course!” Tatsuya says before swiftly leaving.

A moment later, he returns with a pitcher of water and a cup and offers her one. When she lifts her hand and they see it tremble, Madara bends to adjust the pillows on her back so she’s in a reclining position while Izuna takes the cup from her twin and helps her drink, careful not to spill the water.

“It’s been nine days, sister. Nine days since…” Izuna trails off, eyes faraway.

Nine days since the death of their aunt and their little brothers. Yes, she remembers very well and feels her throat tighten and warm tears form in her eyes upon remembering what she’s last witnessed before darkness fell. The bloody lake…

“Your eyes. You have different eyes now, Hinata. Can you feel the difference?” Madara asks in a serious voice, changing the topic entirely.

“It…everything looks so sharp it hurts,” she answers.

Izuna moves away and returns quickly with a mirror. “Have a look. You have really strange eyes, Hina. It’s…well, no one really knows what they are as this is the first time anyone’s seen their like but perhaps, they’re different because of your byakugan.”

She hesitantly takes the mirror and slows raises it to eye level and gasps when she sees the eyes looking back.

One mangekyou sharingan and…one tenseigan.


	11. Bloody Road to Peace

“My girl, how do you feel?” her father asks with dark sorrowful eyes, one of his large, battle-hardened hands on top of her head.

“I’m getting better, father,” she answers quietly.

She hears him sigh before he moves then sits down beside her on the _engawa_ , both of them now looking at the small man-made pond where her late mother’s precious colorful koi fishes are swimming without a care in the world.

After a long while of heavy silence, she turns her head a bit to look at him and observe his face and expression. 

Like most Uchihas, Tajima is a very handsome man with blue-black hair and intense dark eyes. When her mother was still alive, there’d been a light in his eyes and he’d been quick to smile and laugh. When she died, her father changed and aged drastically. His hair and his eyes are still dark as night but deep creases have found their way on his forehead, tear troughs appeared on his cheeks and there are now lines around his mouth that’s almost always curled downwards. And with two of his little boys dead, he looks even older, gaunter and anguished. Not even the most recent clash with the some of the Senju men had been capable of lessening his grief.

He hasn’t been at home when she woke up and the days following due to an important mission from a daimyo from the Land of Rivers—one that involved men of the Senju as the opposing party’s shinobi guards.

Still so mad with what happened to Kiyoshi and Kenji, her father took the mission himself with a few men of their clan to grab at the chance to retaliate. From what she heard, the mission had been a success and her father has successfully paid the Senju Clan with the blood of their relatives unfortunate enough to have come across him.

“I owe you an apology, daughter, just as I do…did your departed brothers. I haven’t been much of a father these past years…ever since your mother died. You, on the other hand, have shown great fortitude and admirable patience, acting so very mature for your age and shouldering some of the duties I should have handled—like ensuring your brothers, especially the little ones, get the emotional support, attention and advice they need. I am thankful for what you’ve done and sorry you were pushed to do them.”

She searches for words to say but they elude her so she simply looks him in the eye and nods before turning her head to gaze at the pond once more.

She feels awkward at the situation. Yes, in some place in her heart, she still holds a space for him, holds affection for him—for this man she now calls father. But the return of even more memories makes everything so complicated.

She feels as if she’s drowning in a dark lake and she doesn’t know which is up or down, left or right. She feels as if…as if she’s standing on a mountaintop and all she sees are faint blurs and all she hears are distant echoes. Everything just feels so…distant.

“Your eyes,” she hears him continue, “How do they feel? Are they giving you trouble?”

She forces herself to relax and forget about her memories for the time being then answers, “The right one is better. I’m able to switch it off now and return to my normal eyes. It still throbs from time to time and would sometimes activate on its own but…it’s getting better. The left one…I can’t control it so I…I temporarily blocked some of my tenketsu and avoid the constant chakra drain.”

It’s an absolute shock, getting the mangekyou right away and the tenseigan to boot. She had expected to activate the sharingan at some point due to the stories she heard of the events during her birth but did not anticipate to get either of the two she has in her possession now.

Remembering Sasuke’s past explanations about the sharingan and its evolution though, it makes sense. The return of her memories accompanied with all her losses must have triggered its activation and caused it to instantly evolve to mangekyou.

Over the last few days, she explored her new eye abilities and made a few discoveries.

One thing she discovered was that she still has byakugan in her right eye. Another was that she also has the three-tomoe stage sharingan. The only difference is in the amount of chakra. For example, if she increases her normal eye chakra flow by 25%, she activates her byakugan. If she adds another 25%, she activates a three-tomoe sharingan. Add just a little more and it turns to a mangekyou.

As for her mangekyou ability, like Sasuke and their children told her in the past, it’s instinctive and normally based on the event that triggered it. Her lacking speed and her failure to reach and save her younger brothers in time has caused her to get a mangekyou based on speed—a teleportation one—and it’s somehow tied to her byakugan range. She can teleport as far as her byakugan can see. She doesn’t have full control of it yet. She’ll still need more time to truly master it.

The tenseigan is a lot harder to control. She’s only ever seen it used a few times in the past by Toneri Ootsutsuki. She knows it has its own chakra mode. She knows it has attractive and repulsive forces. She knows it can give the user control over truth-seeking balls. She knows it can control a huge golem and the moon. But with only one tenseigan, she doesn’t know if all those abilities apply, though if Sasuke’s rinnegan was an indication, it’s a huge possibility.

One of the things she discovered on her own is that it has an even longer range than the byakugan. But the amount of chakra it requires to keep it active is too much, even greater than the mangekyou’s and it’s very taxing on her still fairly small reservoir so she’s not that eager to explore it yet.

The good thing is, with the byakugan, she can view her entire chakra network. With just a few taps, she is able to close off some of her tenketsu, helping her in deactivating both eyes when necessary.

“Good,” she hears her father respond. He turns and looks at her with solemn eyes before he continues, “I can help you with the three-tomoe sharingan but…the other forms…I really don’t do much as your father, hm? I can’t even help you with your eyes.”

“It…it really is alright, Father. It’s not your fault that my eyes are so different. I’ll be fine. I’ll try to figure it out on my own. If I need help, I’ll let you or Nii-san and Izuna-nii know,” she tells him gently.

He gives her a small, sad smile, “Aa. There’s really nothing else to do but to explore it on your own. But I am confident you’ll succeed. You’ve got a smart head on top of your shoulders, princess.”

“Thank you, Father,” she says while looking down.

“I am leaving for another mission tomorrow—an escort mission involving a noble from the Land of Tea. It seems I will have another opportunity to avenge your brothers,” he says with a satisfied gleam in his dark eyes.

“Father,” Hinata trails off and grits her teeth in helplessness and frustration.

She knows Zetsu plays a role in the conflict between the Senju and the Uchiha. But she cannot tell anyone yet. She cannot share her full knowledge yet. She’s still in a child’s body with powers just acquired and not yet mastered.

More than that, her father and Senju Butsuma has a grudge against each other so strong that sharing what she knows now might just complicate things further—perhaps even jeopardize Madara and Hashirama’s future decision of making peace.

Also, with the death of her brothers so recent, her father’s rage has not abated yet. She’s not going to put it past even Uchiha Tajima, her own father, to use her as a tool to get an advantage over his most hated enemy. Power corrupts after all. It twists men into unrecognizable versions of themselves. And knowledge of the future is one of the most dangerous powers of all. She cannot use her full knowledge yet, only her words for now.

“You don’t approve,” he voices his observation.

“All this violence, all this killing, this cycle of hatred and vengeance. When will it end?” she asks tiredly.

“When the Senju are all dead and rotting on the ground,” he answers her with a hardened look on his face, his chakra suddenly leaking out, aggressive.

She sees Madara and Izuna approach from the corner of her eyes. They must have sensed their father’s chakra and came to find out what’s happening but she ignores them, focusing instead on the man she calls father.

“So you’ll slaughter all of them—the helpless women, the infirm old men, the innocent little children, even the babes? You’ll kill all of them? And when you stand on the ground littered with their bones and soaked with their blood, you’ll call it duty? You’ll call it victory? You’ll call it peace?” she asks with some anger leaking in her voice.

His face twists in anger and grief, “And what would you have me do, hm? Make peace with our enemies?”

“Is that not how peace is made, Father? With your enemies—not with your friends.”

“You would have me break bread with the people whose hands are coated with the blood of my father? My brothers? _Your little brothers_?” he snarls lowly, eyes showing his rage.

“As you would break bread with them with hands coated with the blood of their fathers, their brothers, their families and loved ones,” she throws back at him before calming herself and looking at him with pleading eyes, “Don’t you see? Had there been peace, Kiyoshi and Kenji would still be alive today. This—It all has to stop and soon. How many more children have to die because of grown men baying for blood and vengeance for the dead? Are the living not worth more than those who have already left this world? Is the future not more important than the past?”

He breathes deep and closes his eyes, “I understand everything you’re saying. I do. But you don’t know Senju Butsuma.”

“No, I don’t know Senju Butsuma. I never even met him,” she agrees softly, “But I do know he’s also a clan leader, a father. Thus I know that whatever action he commits, it is done to protect his clan, to protect his children, their future. And in that, you both are the same.”

His face twists into a scowl, no doubt unhappy at being compared and called similar to his rival and mortal enemy. He gets up fluidly and before turning away, says, “I will seek peace. But only over Senju Butsuma’s cold and rotting body. Only then and not before.”


	12. Flight and Fate

Hinata looks at Tatsuya’s face with sharp eyes. Her twin has tried his best to school his face to one of determination but the look in his oh so young dark eyes, the movement of his throat, the restless twitching of his right hand—they all practically scream ‘ _petrified’_.

“It will only be a simple escort mission for a merchant to the Land of Rivers and he won’t be alone. He’ll be joined by three more. He’s now eight. It’s time for him to start. Do not forget that your older brothers started a year younger,” their father calmly explains, the expression on his face a clear indicator he’s not going to change his mind.

Hinata remembers very well the day her older brothers were sent out on their first mission. Remembers how they returned with tired, haunted eyes after. Young and helpless inside a small body, she was not able to protect them. Like she was not able to protect their two little brothers. Like she was not able to protect so many others she loved in the past.

She’s still young but she’s considerably stronger now than she was before, especially with her mangekyou sharingan’s capability. And for her twin, she wants to do whatever she can, protect him for however long she can.

_What good is power if you cannot protect the ones you love?_

She meets their father’s dark eye and speaks using a gentle, persuading tone, “Let me go with him. I, too, am eight now. With my byakugan, an escort mission will be perfect for me, Father.”

Tajima’s jaw clenches and his eyes harden, signs of his irritation. “Stop coddling your brother. It’s time for him to learn, Hinata.”

“I am not coddling him. Coddling him would be me asking you not to send him out. He’s still going to take the mission Father, I’ll only be there to accompany him and gain experience myself,” she reasons out gently.

“And the healing wards?” he asks with a raised brow.

“Have sufficient manpower even without me here. Natsuki and Emika are now capable of basic healing,”

He exhales before nodding his head, “Very well. Prepare yourselves then. You leave tomorrow.”

* * *

There are five of them. She and her twin, a thirteen year old boy named Setsuna who she’s come to learn is a third cousin through their father and two distant relatives named Hiro and Akio, also teens.

With her byakugan now able to cover a decent twelve kilometers, the mission had been relatively easy and they were able to safely escort the merchant to his town in the Land of Rivers without any issue.

It is when they re-enter the borders of Fire that a complication arises—three Senju complications.

When the three men enter the range of her byakugan, she immediately notices the Senju crest stamped on the neckline of their armors and decides to keep them within her sight. A few minutes after, she realizes there must be a sensory ninja among them. The three males are clearly tracking them, their pace picking up the closer they get.

“Pick up your paces and be on guard. Three Senju males. Adults. Ten kilometers East,” she tells her brother and cousins.

The atmosphere is instantly tense. Tatsuya looks at her with a mix of fear and determination, Hiro and Akio look uneasy while Setsuna looks angry and excited at the same time.

“Let’s deal with them. Five to three doesn’t look a bad match,” the teen proposes.

“Absolutely not,” Hinata answers right away, “Have you not heard me cousin? I said adults. That means they’re strong enough to have survived this far. Don’t underestimate them and don’t forget this is the first time for my twin and I.”

“As the leader of this mission—“

“You should know better than to risk the lives of your teammates and cousins with your foolish desire to engage in a battle you don’t know you’ll win,” Hinata shuts the foolish teen down.

The teen glowers darkly but thankfully shuts up and picks up speed while Hiro and Akio shoot her looks of gratitude.

“They’re fast. Eight kilometers now. Hurry up or they’ll reach us,” she tells them tersely.

They increase their speed even more but when the Senju men close the distance to just six kilometers, she knows then they’ll get caught in a fight if she didn’t act.

“All of you stop and come to me,” she orders them.

“What? Why? Wasn’t it you who told us earlier to pick up pace?” Setsuna asks with a scowl.

“Do it,” she says with a harsh voice she copies from Madara. The Senju are all within five kilometers now and if their speed was any indication, it will only be a matter of time before they’re engaged in a fight some of them might not survive.

She doesn’t know the three men, doesn’t know their powers and skills. But with her byakugan, she can see that all of them have easily large reserves, one in particular can even easily outmatch her father’s.

She also knows that Senju Butsuma is famous for being a harsh and demanding Clan Head like her father. As such, the three are bound to be stronger than the usual run-of-the-mill shinobi. She’s neither foolish nor arrogant enough to think her teleportation capability will be enough to win a head-on fight with unknown people.

Her twin immediately complies, followed by Hiro and Akio. Setsuna looks about to argue further so she decides to activate her three-tomoe sharingan and glares at him with all her might, “I’ll leave you behind if you don’t stop being stupid.”

He shuts up immediately and approaches her warily. “What are you going to do?” he asks.

She wraps one of her arms to her anxious twin and opens the other to her distant cousins, “You’ll know soon enough. Come and hold on to me. Be quick.”

They do as she asked and when they’re all in the circle of her arms, she activates her mangekyou and with her byakugan in the other eye still active, teleports all of them twelve kilometers away from the approaching Senju men. She does it five times, bringing it to a total of sixty miles.

By the time she’s done with teleporting, she only has about three-quarters of her chakra reserves and she’s surrounded by dizzy and vomiting boys.

“Fuck it! What the hell did you do you little brat?” Setsuna angrily asks before groaning and clutching his stomach.

“I teleported and saved all our lives, cousin. We’re now at least sixty kilometers away from them. But don’t get complacent, all of you. We’re still far from home,” she answers before going to her twin and gently patting his back while he throws up his last meal, all the while keeping her byakugan active.

* * *

Madara scowled and cursed under his breath when his pebble sunk for the sixth time.

Another fail. How annoying! Stone-skipping was supposed to be easy! Why couldn’t he get his stones to reach the other side?

Determined to succeed, he bent down and made sure to pick up a smoother, better-shaped pebble. He was about to get up when he noticed another pebble. It had an imperfect heart shape, but what really caught his attention was its color. It strangely reminded him of the color of his sister’s eyes—purple, just a bit darker. He decided to pick it up and give it to her later. Perhaps, she’d find it cute. Perhaps it would distract her, even if just a little bit. She did find beauty and took pleasure in the simplest things.

He sighed at the thought of his little sister. And subsequently, his little brother, Tatsuya.

The twins have gone to an escort mission in the Land of Rivers and their absence was adding to his stress.

With Tatsuya already eight, Madara knew it was only a matter of time before his younger brother got initiated to the shinobi business. He just didn’t expect their sister join so soon and could not help but feel anger at their father for allowing it. She should have been given more time.

Their little brothers’ deaths have really affected and changed Hinata in ways he wished had never happened. Oh she still went on about her life like she did before—spending her days on training and learning, healing and teaching. She still looked out for Tatsuya with much love and patience and care. She was still very close with Izuna, still spent time with their second eldest just talking quietly. She was still the same with him. She was still the one with the eyes that saw much and understood him better than anyone else.

They all still trained and sparred together. She’s even more challenging now. Though she still has lesser chakra reserves compared to him, she’s a lot stronger, a whole lot faster. It’s as if in a blink of an eye, while he wasn’t looking, she has closed the gap between them. There were even times he felt that she could be stronger than him—if she stopped holding back.

She’s still the same strong, intelligent, perceptive and kind little sister they all knew and loved. She’s still the same in all the ways that really mattered. But sometimes…she was not.

Sometimes, she would have such terrible night terrors she’d wake up crying, tears and sometimes blood streaming down her little face. They’d tried to ask her many times so they could help but she would just smile sadly and tiredly and say she’d handle it. Sometimes, her face would have this awful look, as if she’s gone back to that time when Kiyoshi and Kenji died and she’s drowning in an ocean of pain and sorrow. And other times, there’s this look in her eyes that made it feel as if she were miles and miles away—in a place somewhere they couldn’t reach.

There’s something new to her presence too—sometimes heavy, sometimes suffocating, sometimes empty.

Their father said that it must be grief. That she must still be grieving for their two little brothers. That the pain must be just amplified by the fact that she felt the danger and was on her way to the lake but failed to get there on time and save their brothers. That her new eye abilities must be a painful reminder of what she perceived as her failure.

He understood everything his father said. He did. But it was frustrating! For years Hinata has helped them a lot after their mother’s death and now that she needed theirs, nothing seemed to be working. And now she’s starting to go on missions!

Getting worked up, he drew his arm back once more and threw the pebble, watched it skip a few times then…

Another fail. This act of skipping stones was supposed to be relaxing. Now it’s just pissing him off.

With a small sigh, he bent down to pick up another pebble, not willing to give up. He is Uchiha Madara, he’s not going to lose in a stupid activity.

“This time, I’ll reach the other side for sure,” he muttered while bouncing the pebble in his hand.

He was about to throw the pebble when something whizzed over his shoulder. He stared and saw…a pebble, skipping the water and reaching the other side.

Scowling, he turned his head to look at whoever threw the pebble and saw a grinning boy. He had dark eyes and an ugly bowl-cut dark hair. He looked to be around Madara’s age.

“Just aim it a little higher than you’d expect. That’s the trick,” the boy said.

With a glower, he turned around to fully face the intruder who dared to provide him uninvited advice. “I don’t need you to tell me that. It will reach the other side if I put my all into it! Who the hell are you anyway?” he asked rudely in retaliation.

“Hmm. Right now, I’m just your rival at stone skipping,” the boy declared. Then, with a smug look, he added, “Though mine has already reached the other side.”

Annoyed at the boast and the lack of answer to his question, Madara demanded, “I asked you who you are!”

“It’s Hashirama,” the boy answered, “I can’t tell you my last name due to reasons.”

“Hashirama eh?” Madara turned to face the river once more, fierce determination on his face, “Well, just watch. I’m gonna make it this time.” He absolutely refused to lose to stupid bowl-cut boy. He’s got his own pride to protect.

Thinking it more effective, he decided to use the stance for throwing a shuriken and threw the pebble and watched as it skipped a few times over the water…then sunk once more. Unable to take the humiliation, he deflected by turning around and confronting his newly-acquired stone-skipping rival, “Hey! You stood behind me on purpose to distract me! I’m the type that can’t even pee when someone’s behind me!”

To his surprise, Hashirama suddenly went down on the ground. “S-sorry,” he apologized, an aura of gloom blanketing him.

The look somehow reminded him of his little sister and immediately made him feel guilty. “Hey…Don’t take it so seriously. Sorry, I was just making excuses,” he admitted while pressing a hand to his face, all the while feeling awkward.

“I…I didn’t know…That you had such an obnoxious self-diagnosed neurosis,” Hashirama responded.

The insulting words contrasted with the look the other boy presented that Madara didn’t know how to interpret it, making him feel annoyed. “I can’t tell if you’re a nice guy or a nasty guy!”

Catching him by surprise once more, the other boy instantly lost his aura of gloom and laughed, “One thing for sure! I’m better than you at stone skipping.”

“Want me to skip you instead?” he asked while pointing a finger, mighty pissed at the other boy once more for the comment.

And the aura of gloom returned and down the boy went to the ground once more saying, “S-sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you. To make amends, I’ll let you throw me into the river. Go ahead, throw me.”

By Sage! What an immature moody weirdo!

“Do you even notice your own obnoxious neurosis?” Madara asked in wonder.

“I just…hope I reach the opposite side,” the boy Hashirama muttered in a cheeky tone.

Immediately, Madara was reminded of his failure and burst a vein in anger, “You’re a real eyesore! Get lost!”

As if nothing happened, Hashirama simply got up and with a careless smile and goodbye wave said, “Well then…”

Disliking the casual attitude, he grabbed the other boy’s shoulder. “Wait a second!”

“Which is it? Why don’t you be clearer?” Hashirama asked while looking back with a frown.

“T-that’s…” Madara trailed off, also not knowing why exactly he was so annoyed and angry and why he even stopped Hashirama from leaving. For a moment, he worried that the other boy’s weirdness was contagious and rubbed on him.

Suddenly the expression on Hashirama’s face changed and Madara noticed him looking at the river. He turned around to see what caught the other boy’s attention and saw a corpse floating face down, moving with the slowly flowing water.

“That’s!” Madara uttered in slight shock and stopped when Hashirama suddenly moved and approached the corpse. Madara immediately took note of how the other boy walked atop the water. “Are you…a shinobi?” he asked warily, though deep inside he already knew it must be so.

“This location will become a battlefield soon. Go home,” the other boy said, not answering his question. “Sorry, but I’ve got to go,” he next said before neatly leaping to the other side of the river. “So long.” Then as though remembering something, he turned to Madara.

He realized then he hasn’t given Hashirama his name and introduced himself, “It’s Madara.”

“Madara?”

“Not proffering one’s family name to a stranger…is shinobi law,” he reminded the other boy, a knowing look in his eyes.

“I knew it,” Hashirama said, dark eyes serious, “You’re a shinobi too.”

Soon after that, the moody weirdo with the ugly bowl-cut hairstyle said his farewell and disappeared between the trees. It was a very quick, almost meaningless interaction and yet, Madara felt that it was somehow important. He didn’t dwell on it for long though. With the memory of the floating corpse and the knowledge that the area would no doubt become a battlefield soon, he hurriedly returned home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Madara and Hashirama dialogue is not mine. It's taken directly from the anime. I just added some to it. You might have also noticed Cersei Lannister's line from the Game of Thrones series. (Did you?) :)


	13. Acts of Kindness

“This is a nice place,” Madara says, standing on a tree branch and looking down. Below them is a small clearing surrounded by tall trees and a stream not too far. “Hina, do one last check,” he orders then drops down to the ground without a noise.

She does as she’s told, sweeping the surrounding area with her byakugan for any threats. “All clear Nii-san,” she reports after dropping down beside him.

“Very good. Let’s camp for the night. Water?’ he asks with a hand stretched.

She removes the satchel on her back and gives him her empty water bottle. Without a word, he goes to the stream to refill them, their cousin Setsuna dogging his steps, while she pulls out their food rations.

With the success of her first mission followed even more missions and now, she’s taking one almost every week.

Escort missions, delivery missions and supply runs—it’s like being a genin and chuunin all over again, only with more danger involved with every encounter with members of other clans a possible threat to her life.

The only good thing about it is that, now, she sometimes joins Madara and Izuna during missions and she also has the opportunity to negotiate with her father to keep Tatsuya with her as much as possible.

Her father doesn’t like it, thinking she’s sheltering her twin too much, but he stopped with his grumbles when she pointed out that aside from her keeping watch, Tatsuya has to do everything else everyone are expected to do in a mission.

She, Madara and their cousin Setsuna are currently on a mission to Rice. They’re on their way to deliver scrolls containing important trade agreements between a wealthy noble in the Land of Fire and a merchant in the Land of Rice.

Everything is well so far, except for the looks of distaste she gets from Setsuna. The stupid boy hasn’t forgotten how she challenged his leadership and foolish decisions several months ago it seems.

They take their meals quietly and after Madara gave them their schedules for taking watch, Setsuna falls asleep huddled under his blanket under a tree while she and her brother share their blankets for more warmth under another tree. They didn’t bother with a campfire—too dangerous if someone catches notice.

“He’s been giving you dark looks. Shall I gouge out his eyes?” Madara asks in a whisper, dark amusement in his voice.

She pinches his side and answers just as softly to avoid waking up the other boy. “Let him be. He’ll only get angrier at me if he thinks I’m asking you to defend me. It’ll only lead to even more strife.”

Madara scoffs. “Tch. He’s an ungrateful brat. I’ll leave him alone as you ask but if he says or does something, I’ll do what needs to be done to put him in his place. You understand?”

“I can take care of myself, brother. If he says or does something, I can deal with him myself. You’ll be Clan Head someday, Nii-san. One of the things a Clan Head needs to know is when to intervene in a fight and when not to. If you keep on interfering in every little spat, you’ll find yourself disliked, or worse, hated. And a hated leader is disaster for the clan.”

“Hina, not you too,” he complains with a groan. “I already listen to Father preach enough as it is.”

“Mm. I just want to see you become a successful leader,” she says, gently patting his arm.

He puts his arm on her shoulder and pulls her closer and with a soft voice says, “I know, little sister. Sleep now. You’re our scout all day and you have third watch, remember?”

* * *

It is two to three hours before dawn, during her watch, when several people enter the range of her byakugan, now at fifteen kilometers.

They’re clearly locked in a fight, three grown men against two—one a teen and the other a child of no more than twelve.

She immediately recognizes that of the two, the younger one is a Nara based on the shadows he’s manipulating and the older boy is an Akimichi based on his familiar body build.

Their enemies, she didn’t know, but with one showing control over lightning, she guesses they’re from Lightning Country.

She awakens her brother and Setsuna to alert them of the situation and have them prepare to get away from the area if or when necessary, all the while keeping an eye on the fight in the distance and hoping the Nara and Akimichi duo wins.

A few minutes pass and it’s looking bad for the two.

“Let’s help them,” she proposes.

“What?! Are you mad? They’re not our allies. We don’t have to help them. And besides, we have a mission of our own to complete,” Setsuna immediately answers, looking at her as if she’s stupid.

She ignores him and addresses her brother instead. “Brother, they’re children, just like us. The Nara child is probably no more than twelve years old. And think, the Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka clans are closely affiliated. If we help them now without asking for payment, this could lead to three clans with a debt of gratitude to us and possibly making them more open to future alliances.”

Madara’s expression is one of indecision before he speaks in a grave voice, “I do see the benefits. But you said three grown men Hina, and that they’re strong. What if they turn to us instead?”

A Nara and an Akimichi. They shouldn’t really mean anything to her right now, but they’re Shikamaru’s family. Her family too, lifetimes ago. And the thought of letting the children die while watching and doing nothing is just unacceptable, so very wrong to her. Especially when there’s something she can do about it.

She looks at Madara with a determined face. “I can do it. You both don’t have to go near them. I can get the two and bring them here.”

“Are you sure you?” Madara asks with worry in his eyes.

“I can, and I will. Stay alert and wait for me here.”

With that, she quickly wraps a bandage over her eyes to prevent anyone from seeing them. Then, she activates the mangekyou in her right eye and teleports to the area where the duo are on the verge of losing and getting themselves killed.

She has complete control of her mangekyou now and teleportation doesn’t affect her chakra that much anymore, the draw from her reserves almost negligible. With both her eyes activated, she’s able to assess instantly that the two are wounded and very low on chakra reserves.

The entire operation takes no more than perhaps a second. She takes hold of the Nara child first. To keep him from attacking her, she swiftly incapacitates him by pressing a point near his shoulders, making them go limp then she teleports to the heavily wounded Akimichi next and disappears with her two cargos under the utterly surprised eyes of their enemies.

She returns to the campsite and when Madara sees her, he immediately approaches.

“Are you alright?” he asks, worriedly looking her over, sharingan active.

“Yes. It was quick,” she answers while lowering her shocked and winded bundles.

“It was, impressively so. Well done, sister,” Madara says with a grin then turns to look at the two strangers in their midst. “They’re wounded.”

“Uchihas!” the sharp-eyed Nara child chokes out, struggling to stand up, his arms limp at his sides.

“What do you want with us?” he asks, face pale and eyes wide with fear.

Hinata offers a smile and raises her two hands in a placating gesture, “We mean you no harm, Nara-san. We actually want to help you.”

“Help us? When did Uchihas start helping others not their own?” the Akimichi asks this time, eyes full of suspicion.

“Tch. See this? This is why you shouldn’t bother helping others, cousin. It’s a waste of time and effort. Ungrateful bastards!” Setsuna says, rudely spitting so close to the Akimichi teen’s feet before turning away.

When Madara looks about to confront their cousin, Hinata tugs at his hand, keeping him in place. It makes him frown but he remains by her side.

“Like I said, we merely want to help you, Nara-san. Your friend, Akimichi-san here, he’s got a wound on his back, near his shoulder. I can heal him.”

“And how do we know you won’t stab our backs instead? You’ve incapacitated me already,” the Nara child points out, his dark brown eyes hard and intent on her face.

So cautious, so suspicious. It’s sad to see it in a child so young. And oh, how her heart aches to see his face—his face which so closely resembles that of Shikamaru and their children.

But such is the way of life for a shinobi, especially in the troubled times they live in and as such, she understands where he’s coming from.

“I’ll reopen your tenketsu points and, as a show of trust, you can use your shadow technique on me while I heal your friend.”

The Nara child’s eyes widens and his mouth goes slack while the Akimichi splutters in disbelief.

“Oi Hina, are you mad? You’re going to willingly have yourself under the Nara’s jutsu?” Madara furiously asks.

“If it gets him to trust me, then why not?”

The Nara looks at his friend, face worried, “Chou? If she lets me use my binding technique, then…”

“Alright,” the Akimichi teen agrees hesitantly. He is pale, the pain caused by his wound and the chakra strain obviously gotten to him now.

Seeing the hesitation on their faces still, she approaches them slowly. She keeps within the Nara child’s line of sight when she reopens his chakra points.

“Try moving your arms now,” she instructs him.

She sees obvious relief on his face when he’s able to move his arms the way he wants them too.

After a quick nod, the Nara then performs his binding technique and a long shadow goes up and surrounds her neck. She looks at Madara and gives him a smile of assurance before getting down to healing the two children.

She starts with the Akimichi.

“I’ll need to remove your shoulder plates and cut part of your cloth at the back to be able to attend to your wound better,” she warns him calmly, getting a guarded nod in return.

She quietly and deftly unknots the ties connecting the shoulder plates to the breastplate and backplate of his fitted armor then, with a look of warning to the still wary boy, uses a kunai to cut his clothing.

She examines the wound and is relieved to find that while it’s deep, it’s not deep enough to reach his bones, especially his shoulder blade. She then goes on to heal him.

“What is your name? Why are you helping us?” the Nara child asks.

“I’m Hinata. I’m helping you because I can and I want to. Call this my random act of kindness for the day,” she answers softly.

The boy scoffs, “That’s stupid. What if the person you show kindness today stabs you in the back tomorrow?”

“Hm. Well, what if the person you show kindness today turns out to be your savior tomorrow?” she asks back with a raised brow. “The truth is, no one really knows what will happen in the future. No one can tell exactly how life plays out. However, isn’t it far better to be kind rather than add more unkindness to this already cruel world?”

“We’re shinobi,” the child mutters in a low, almost belligerent voice.

“Yes, that we are. But first we are people. Not wild beasts incapable of reason or compassion.”

He looks about to say something several times before shaking his head and shutting his mouth entirely.

For a long while, no one speaks and she continues with her work on the two, pausing from time to time to check the perimeter with her byakugan to keep their group safe from surprise attacks. When she’s almost done healing the Akimichi teen, three people enter her range.

“There’s a Nara, an Akimichi and a Yamanaka around 13 kilometers East from here. I believe they’re looking for you,” she tells the two.

“How do you know that? How can you tell that far?” the Nara child asks, his brown eyes piercing.

“I have my ways,” she turns to Madara, “Shall we leave now?”

When her brother nods his head and turns to leave, she also picks up her mission gears.

“You’re going to leave just like that? You’re not going to ask for payment?” the Nara child asks, bewildered and incredulous at the same time.

“As I said, I wanted to help you. Since it’s my choice, you’re not obliged to pay us anything.”

She gives the two smiles then nods before leaving the area.

* * *

With a shadow clone covered with a blanket on her bed and her pouches of ninja tools strapped to her thigh and her back, she stealthily leaves the house.

It’s time, she decides. To finally visit the place she called home lifetimes and lifetimes ago.

For a long time, she’s been stuck between wanting and not wanting to see the place. And for a long time, she has used the excuse of danger to keep herself from visiting.

But the encounter with the Nara and the Akimichi…it brought about feelings that keep hounding her.

She misses Konoha. All of it. Misses it with a pain that made her chest constrict. That made her feel as if she’s suffocating on her own breath.

She visits just as dawn is breaking on the horizon and she stands on top of the mountain and looks…

She has expected it but, even with her knowledge and memories, the impact of what she sees makes her take a long shuddering breath.

It is unbearable.

To look at the sheer cliff side of the mountain and not see the iconic faces of the Hokages carved into the stone and watching guard over the land. To stand on the plateau on top of it and gaze around and see nothing…

Nothing else but a vast sea of trees.

But if she closes her eyes and take the plunge and allow herself to get caught in the torrent of her memories…

 _Konoha_.

The Village Hidden in the Leaves. Home to most of the people she loved and lost. The place of her greatest victories and most crushing defeats. A place of love and heartbreak and of laughter and bitter tears. Of hope and hopelessness. A place she wants to remember and forget in the same breath.

She can almost see it all. Almost feel it under her skin. Almost hear and smell and taste it. Feel it all around her.

She can almost see the home of her childhood with its shoji screens and sliding doors and cold and oppressive walls. She can see its long halls where the cruel and arrogant members of the Main House walked with their clean foreheads held high while the members of the Branch House followed with their backs bent just so and their marked foreheads bowed.

She can imagine Hyuuga Hiashi in his study, in front of his work table, head buried deep in his duties. She can see Hanabi, in one of the dojos, practicing her katas, her jaws set in determination and her eyes hard and sharp like diamonds. She can see Neji, in one of the courtyards, going through his fighting stances and perfecting the revolving heaven, spinning over and over again.

She can envision the quaint little homes with their little gardens, where blue-eyed little girls planted and cared for sunflowers. The backyards where little blonde-haired boys played their pranks and practiced their jutsus and where little adventures sometimes turned to funny, sometimes exasperating disasters.

She can recall strong personalities and exploding tempers and loud arguments. She can remember their grand dreams and their goals and their indomitable wills that kept them moving forward, that encouraged and pushed others to also move forward.

She can picture the forest where little children napped under the shade of trees or lazily watched their herd of deer graze across the land. She can remember games and tricks involving shadows moving sneakily along tree trunks, the ground and the walls and floors of their home.

She remembers arguments and debates discussed over board games. Remembers important negotiations and compromises that stretched into the night. Remembers long and meaningful conversations during meals about everything—their lives, their relationships, the Nara Clan, the Village and politics.

She can almost see the separate Uchiha Clan land—once nothing but a dark place of death and horror, restored and turned years later into a place of love and laughter. She can see the lake where little boys and girls with beautiful little faces practiced their fire and lightning techniques, where summer nights were spent swimming under the stars.

She remembers the homes Sasuke had built for them, the homes where she loved and watched her children grow. Where she listened and supported their wishes and their hopes and their dreams. Where she took care of their hurts and soothed their fears of being born with the hated Uchiha blood in their veins.

She can picture the Hokage Tower, the residence of the highest authority in the village. She can see the Hospital, Lady Tsunade’s and, later on, Sakura’s domain—where lives were saved and lost. She can see the spot where the Academy was (will be) built and the playgrounds and training yards where friendships and rivalries were formed.

She can recall the grounds where Team Eight always trained and sparred. Remembers Shino and his calm, his blunt and stoic manner, his funny little grudges, his unfailing support and confidence in her. She remembers Kiba, his wildness and his brashness, his loyalty and protective tendencies. She remembers Kurenai and her support and encouragement during her most difficult years.

She can almost see the commercial district with perfect clarity. Naruto’s favorite Ichiraku Ramen. The bakery where she always bought her cinnamon rolls. Ino and her family’s Flower Shop. Tenten and her Weapon’s Shop. Chouji’s Family Restaurant.

She can almost see the village’s walls and Lee and Gai-sensei running like the wind, doing their crazy early morning workout. The cemetery and the memorial stone where Kakashi Hatake is visiting his former sensei and teammates.

She can almost see them all and it’s liberating and heartbreaking and insanity-inducing all at the same time. She feels soaring in the sky from one happy memory one moment, crashing to the ground the next, and then drowning under the waves after.

Almost...almost...what a cursed, tragic word.

Because everything's gone. They're all lost to her now.

She knows, _she_ _knows_ , she’ll never see them again. She will never find her way back home to them again.

Because, even if by some miracle she invents a time travel jutsu, where will she even return? Where is home now? Konoha? The vast desert of Suna? The house in the Land of Lightning? Or the beach house in the Land of Waves?

There’s so many of them and so many people and choosing one means losing the others. Leaving the present means abandoning the family she now has. And what then?

It’s all too much. So unbearable that she contemplates just putting an end to it all.

It will be so easy. Far too easy. And quick.

Just one sharp dagger and a stab to the heart.

But the thought of leaving behind the brothers she’s been given in this life, the brothers she’s come to love. The thought of what could happen to Tatsuya and Izuna in the future. Of what will happen to Madara—the dark path he will take. And Obito. The tragedy that will befall the entire Uchiha Clan in the future. Shisui's sacrifice, Itachi's choices, and Sasuke’s fate. Her children. All the violence and the destruction that will happen if nothing is done. All the pain and loss.

_History once more repeating itself…_

She opens her eyes, looks at the palm of her hands, and laughs and weeps at the madness of it all.

* * *

She’s passing through the great forest and on her way back to the Uchiha Clan territory when she accidentally catches sight of them in the fringes of her byakugan’s range.

Five grown Uchiha men she’s not really familiar with but has seen a few times around the Uchiha territory are chasing a boy wearing an armor with the Senju crest. The child cannot be more than ten and they are hunting him as though he’s naught but prey to butcher! A child!

And they’re so close to reaching the boy! Less than a kilometer. And ten kilometers from them are four Senjus, two almost teens and two adults, swiftly traversing the forest and obviously trying to rescue the first child.

If nothing is done, the first child will certainly die and the two groups will most likely cross paths and fight, leading to more death.

Her misery from earlier turns to anger and disgust.

With her blood slowly boiling in her veins, she casts a henge to keep her anonymity and activates the mangekyou sharingan in her right eye and teleports to where the boy is, embraces him from behind and teleports both of them right on the path of the four Senjus, making them stop in their tracks immediately.

She lets go of the child in her grasp and with one last glance at the stunned looks on their faces, she disappears from their sight.


	14. The Boy Named Hashirama

The atmosphere inside the spacious study room is stifling, with her father’s slightly erratic and aggressive chakra saturating the place. If she does not have the experience and the knowledge she possesses, she surely would have been reduced to a fidgeting and stammering mess in front of him.

“Your cousin Setsuna reported that you intervened in a fight not yours to join, all to save a Nara and an Akimichi,” he says, dark eyes giving her a glare.

“Yes, I did Father,” she admits, pressing her palms flat on her thighs to avoid clenching them into fists. Of course, Setsuna told, that tattle-tale. This is his revenge for what happened all those months ago.

The displeased expression on her father’s face turns even more severe at her admission. “May I ask why?” he asks through gritted teeth, the simmering anger now even more pronounced.

She calmly looks him in the eye before she responds, “The Nara, Akimichi and Yamanaka clans are all affiliated, making them a formidable group to contend with. I figured helping one of their own would be beneficial for possible future alliances.”

“We are Uchihas!” he snaps, face full of pride. “We are strong and do not need any other clans’ help—certainly not from those three. And you! You were on a mission to deliver an important scroll, not to help members of other clans who rival ours in securing important contracts. What if you had been put in danger? What would’ve happened to your own mission then?”

“Father, the Senju are allied with the Sarutobi Clan and have warm relations with other minor clans. It wouldn’t hurt to have allies on our side. As for the danger, I did not fight anyone father. I only interfered knowing I could get away safely. And I did.”

Tajima pinches the bridge of his nose and repeatedly shakes his head, “No. You are to never do that again. You will never again jeopardize yourself or your mission simply because you feel the need to be kind and help others, do you hear me?”

Hinata slowly curls her hands into fists but nods her head in agreement to avoid further conflict. It is useless to fight her father head-on, she knows. Better to show obeisance in front of him. Not that she’ll let his pride and beliefs hinder her actions. She knows how to make shadow clones. She’ll continue, but act a little more inconspicuous. What Uchiha Tajima doesn’t know won’t hurt him.

Her thoughts are cut off when she sees him extend a scroll in front of her.

“Read it.” He commands before placing his elbows on the table and steepling his fingers, all the while looking at her with dark, stern eyes.

She carefully unfurls the parchment and when it’s laid open before her, her eyes carefully runs over its contents. It is a detailed report of the Clan’s finances showing their assets and liabilities, their revenues and expenses, their gains and losses, including the deaths of clan members.

“As you can see, missions still make up the bulk of our source of income and we are still getting highly important contracts from daimyos, nobilities and merchants. But the heightened hostility with the Senju has severely affected our revenues. Not only have our losses inflated due to clan members dying on the field and missions lost, there’s also an increase in expenses for munitions and other necessities. All of which can’t be helped.”

Her father says these things with the worry lines becoming more evident on his face, making him appear just a little bit older. For her part, Hinata feels a little numb and remains speechless while re-reading the details on the scroll.

She’s been too focused on her goals—in training and honing her skills, in getting stronger, in helping her brothers, in learning and teaching healing to others and now going out on missions that she never really paid close attention to the minutiae of the clan’s finances.

A big mistake. She should have paid more attention.

The Hyuuga Clan has always taken pride of its wealth. Her old clan was known for being one of the strongest clans not merely by virtue of their famed kekkei genkai and their combat style but also for having considerably vast amounts of assets which included cash money, properties like land, vacation houses and personal collectibles such as jewelry, as well as other investments particularly in the Tea and Grain Trade.

The Senju Clan, she knows based on leadership trainings she went through which included Clan History and Financial Training in the past, is at their peak of wealth right now. They have vast lands and holdings and have many investments in many trades like food, textile and construction.

The Uchiha on the other hand, though also affluent, don’t have much when it came to investments and other trades and the scroll she has in her hands is proof of it. Most of their wealth depends on missions and if they continue as they are, it won’t be long before their wealth dried up. No matter how much pride the Uchiha take in their talents and abilities in combat, the shinobi business is not a sustainable one with the dangers involved and the mortality rate so high as it is.

A thought then enters her mind.

Was prosperity another one of the reasons the Uchiha clan turned its back on Madara? Had they abandoned him because the Uchiha Clan’s wealth has waned after decades, no, centuries, of warring with the Senju? Was throwing away their loyalties and staying in the village the best way they saw to continue moving forward, to thrive and to keep themselves and their children not only safe but well-fed?

It would make sense. And she really can’t fault them for it if that had been the case. Honor and loyalty mean nothing after all when you’re watching your loved ones living a life of penury or worse, suffering from ill-health or starving to death.

“We need to add to our trade. The medicine and healing services we offer must be expanded,” she concludes, gaze fixed on the part of the report showing how exactly the profits from healing and her more advanced ointments and other remedies are contributing to the clan’s purse.

Missions are risky but healing and medicines require lesser capital, have lesser danger involved and are needed all year round. If she used more of her future knowledge, they can expand it to include other items like poison antidotes, herbal teas, soaps, soldier pills, beauty creams. They can make it an even larger trade, making it a greater source of income.

“Good. I’m glad you caught on quickly. Mission works are well and good and profitable but too dangerous in these times and can be failed or lost when the ones taking it are injured or worse, killed. The healing technique you invented and taught our healers as well as the medicines and other products you’ve created are proving to be very beneficial. In just a year, almost a quarter of our income now comes from that section. It can be expanded even more to make it even more lucrative. So I want you to focus on this. You want to be kind and help others? Then teach more of our people.”

Hinata nods her head but her mind is already running miles and miles away.

They have tracts of uncultivated lands. They can grow fruits and vegetables. They can grow their own food to lessen the burden the purchase of food supplies has in their finances.

Then she thinks of greenhouses filled with herbs and medicinal plants like the ones in Suna.

Medicine and healing can be more than another way to profit. It can also be the salvation of the Uchiha Clan in the future when the time of peace comes. It’ll be the way members of the clan can build a positive image and go about creating a stronger bond with the village and its people. It can be the way for the clan’s tragic history to be broken and for a new one to be written.

* * *

Hinata looks up from the ointment she was in the process of making when she hears approaching steps. After a few seconds, the door slides open and a familiar and comforting chakra signature enter.

“Hello little sister,” Izuna greets her with a soft, strained smile.

“You’re hurt,” she says upon seeing the stiff and awkward way he’s standing in front of her. She then activates her byakugan and rakes her eyes over him and sees the terrible state of his right leg.

“Mm. Help me?” he asks gesturing to his leg.

“Of course!” she says and orders, “Sit down, nii-san. What happened?”

“Aa,” he says tiredly while rolling up his right pant leg and showing purpling skin. “It’s some kind of slow-acting poison. Damned puppeteers from Wind Country.”

Hinata perks up at the words and immediately goes on to ask him questions. How he feels, is there pain, numbness, nausea etc. After getting answers and prodding on his leg, she sighs in relief when she finally narrows down the kind of poison used and what’s needed to create an effective cure and in the back of her mind, she thanks Kankurou and his insistence that she learn Suna’s common poisons and their antidotes.

“Where’s Nii-san?” Izuna asks while watching her.

“I don’t know, but I can tell for sure he’s not here,” she answers while swiftly mixing the herbs necessary to cure her brother’s problem.

“Hmmm. I noticed he’s been occupied with something for two—three weeks now,” Izuna remarks then asks curiously, “Any idea what it is he’s fixed his sights on?”

“No, Izu-nii. But I’ll find out. Just to make sure whatever he’s doing won’t hurt him,” she assures him with a small smile.

Yes, there’s indeed something new in her eldest brother for the past two weeks now. A hidden happy gleam in his normally serious eyes, a lightness in his steps and, she notices, hours when he would disappear from their home when normally, he’d spend it sparring with other youths of their clan or training in the yards or the dojos with them or by himself.

She’s certainly curious and will find out what’s causing him to spend so much time outside of the Uchiha territory.

* * *

She spies on Madara one day.

She follows him, keeping a three to five kilometer distance between them. She sees him go the cliff where all the hokages’ faces will be carved in the future and there he meets with another boy. A familiar boy. One of the two Senju boys she met very briefly when she saved that one Senju child.

She finds out the boy’s name after reading Madara’s lips with her byakugan.

It’s freaking Senju Hashirama!

Oh how she wanted to laugh out loud at the irony of it all. Though, thinking about it, she shouldn’t be surprised anymore. The two after all are reincarnations of Asura and Indra and are bound to cross paths sooner or later.

She observes them from afar with her byakugan first.

The two boys practice katas and discuss some jutsus and engage in a kumite, obviously having no idea they’re consorting with their enemy.

They constantly challenge the other and argue a lot and the sight of it dredges up memories of two men she knew and loved and lost.

The facial features of the pair currently before her look so different from Naruto and Sasuke, especially Hashirama with his dark hair, dark eyes and slightly darker skin. And yet, their friendship and rivalry echo with almost perfect similarity.

It’s painful. And more bitter than sweet.

* * *

“I’m going to win again!”

She hears Hashirama boast loudly.

“You bastard! Cheater!” her brother shouts in indignation.

“Ahaha! See you later!”

Hinata smiles in amusement at the loud exchange and sits up straighter in anticipation. With her normal eyes closed, she listens as the two boys rowdily race up the side of the cliff.

She wants to surprise her brother and his new friend. She decided she wants to meet this young Senju Hashirama. She’s interested to get to know this boy who’ll grow into the man who’ll someday become the First Hokage of the Leaf.

“Ha! I win Madara. Eat dirt and—oh! Oh!”

Hinata opens her eyes when she hears Hashirama exclaim in surprise after declaring his win, only to see her brother climb up as well.

“Hinata!” Madara cries out in shock upon seeing her.

“Hi Nii-san,” she greets him with a smile and a small wave before turning to the other boy who looks a bit stunned. “And greetings to you too, Nii-san’s friend.”

“Ehhh? Nii-san?” Hashirama asks, his head tilted a little and his dark eyes blinking owlishly.

With his haircut and enthusiasm, he looks and feels a bit like Rock Lee, only with better-shaped eyes and brows. But his chakra—oh he’s got a powerful one! One that felt like a bottomless pit. Like Naruto’s. And once more she feels a pang at her chest.

“What are you doing here Hina?! You’re too far away from home!” Madara interjects while moving closer to her and clasping her arms.

“As are you Nii-san,” she says with a shrug. When she sees his face contort to a frown, she explains, “You’ve been randomly disappearing for a few days now and I was worried. So I thought to follow you, just to make sure you’re safe.”

“Waitwaitwait!” Hashirama exclaims then points a finger to her and Madara, “You two are siblings? This is the little sister you spoke about Madara?”

Madara sighs and releases her arms before turning to his secretly Senju friend and makes the introductions. “Yes, this is my little sister, Hinata. Hina, this ugly bowl-cut cheat is Hashirama.”

“Madara! That’s a really bad way of introducing me,” the other boy complains before turning to her once more and staring with a friendly look in his eyes. “Hm. I think you’re lying Madara. I don’t believe you’re siblings,” he says after a while, a cheeky grin tugging at his lips.

“What?” her brother asks with furrowed brows then grits out, “I’m not lying you idiot!”

“I don’t believe you’re siblings because you’ve got a super ugly mug and she’s too cute to be your sister!” Hashirama declares then lets out a loud belly laugh.

Hinata hides a smile as her brother bursts a vessel and goes on to attack the laughing boy.

* * *

“So then Hina-chan—“

“I told you it’s either _Hinata-sama_ or _Hinata-hime._ Learn some manners, you idiot. Don’t address my sister so casually. You don’t have the right,” Madara rudely cuts off the other boy while trying to push him away from her side.

“But Madaraaaa! We’re friends are we not? Friends share. I only got bratty and rude little brothers and a fierce female cousin who likes to point sharp things at me. I want a cute little sister too!” Hashirama whines exaggeratedly.

“Well not my sister! Go tell your old man to spawn more children with your mother or whatever,” Madara retorts with an obvious tick on his forehead.

Hashirama slumps and a cloud of gloom blankets over his head. “Well, lucky you, Madara. But I won’t have any more siblings. My mother’s dead,” he mutters in a depressed voice.

She sees Madara’s irritation for the other boy dissipate and he deflates like a balloon leaking air. He looks like he wants to console his friend but doesn’t know what exactly to say and ultimately clams up. She takes over the situation by turning to the depressed Future Hokage and pats him lightly on his back.

“Apologies for my brother’s careless words, Hashirama-san, and my deepest condolences to you and your family. The loss of a mother is painful but…They’re with us always, first during their lifetimes, then forever in our memories. I pray you find comfort in yours.”

Hashirama instantly loses his gloom and he raises his head, eyes surprised, “You too?”

“Yes,” she confirms with a sad little twist in her lips, “Almost four years ago. Our mother died giving birth to our youngest brother.”

“O-oh! I…I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—you have my deepest condolences too!” Hashirama swiftly utters with a bow, expression a mix of sorrow, shame and guilt.

“Thank you. And it’s fine. No need to apologize for something you had no part in or control of,” she tells him with another reassuring pat, to which he responds by smiling tremulously.

“Hashirama, you can call my sister Hina-chan but only if she allows it,” Madara says calmly in a gesture of conciliation, joining the conversation once more.

“It’s fine. You can call me anything you want. I won’t mind really,” Hinata tells Hashirama who instantly grins and is about to enthusiastically glomp her as though she’s some cute, fluffy pet. The boy, she thinks, is a bit of a bipolar.

“But you can’t be so touchy and call her sister!” Madara protests, trying to push away the other boy’s face once more.


	15. Meeting the Ancestors

When she opens her eyes, she’s flat on her back atop something cold and hard instead of her comfortable futon. Above her, instead of her room’s familiar wooden ceiling, she sees the great blue sky with billowing clouds in the distance.

Alarmed at the strange situation she’s found herself in, she quickly gets up and looks around and sees she’s in the middle of a familiar ruined city. She’s standing in the middle of the desolate ruins on the moon, she realizes after a few seconds. But how?

A genjutsu or a dream, she deduces and activates her sharingan to confirm better.

 _“Child_.”

She hears a familiar, deep and gravelly voice call from behind her, making her instantly whirl. Her mouth drops a bit in shock when she sees not one but two old men standing before her—one of them she knows by sight, the other through tales. Hagoromo and Hamura—both of them her ancestors now.

 _“This is a dream, child. No need for the sharingan,”_ the younger of the two says.

She deactivates her sharingan and takes a few steps back, looking at them warily.

Ootsutsukis always bring grave danger with them, this she knows by past experiences. Kaguya, Toneri, Kinshiki, Momoshiki, Isshiki, Urashiki, even Hagoromo and the kindly Hamura. One way or another, their presence always brought about chaos and death and destruction.

Their unexpected appearance not only gives her confusion, it also makes the danger alarms inside her head ring ominously. Only the knowledge that they are her ancestors and that they are in a dream keep her from bolting as far away as she can.

“Hamura-sama, Hagoromo-sama” she greets them softly with a bow and lowered eyes in deference before standing with a stiff back, feeling cautious as she meets their gazes.

The two observe her in silence for what feels like a thousand years—their powerful eyes penetrating, their presence heavy and a bit overwhelming. It feels like floating in the middle of a lake, surrounded by water.

 _“You know us_ , _child_ , _and yet, this is the first time we’re meeting you_ ,” the Sage of Six Paths states after a while, the stare of his rinnegan deep and unfathomable, “ _How?”_

So they don’t know everything. They can’t see her pasts.

She can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not, though she can already infer from their surprise visit that they’re going to ask some very difficult questions.

She swallows her trepidation before she answers. “I met you before Hamura-sama—met you several times in fact, though they were very brief moments,” she says while looking at her first ancestor. Then she turns to the other being, “You Hagoromo-sama, I only know through stories.”

They both start at her revelation, both their eyes showing the many questions piling up inside their heads.

 _“That does not answer my question, child. I ask again, how?”_ Hagoromo asks once more, his tone expressing a hint of displeasure this time.

She breathes deep to calm herself first then, slowly, she raises her hands, palms open, to reveal the marks imprinted on her skin.

The effect is immediate. The two brothers’ eyes widen.

 _“A Karma Seal!”_ the Sage of Six Paths gasps loudly, his expression a mixture of astonishment, fury and dismay. _“What madness have you done, child?”_ he demandingly asks. _“What have you done?”_

The line of her mouth thins and she clenches her jaws to stem the anger she feels at the censure she can hear from his voice and the judgment she sees in his powerful eyes.

He doesn’t know everything. He wasn’t there, at the end. He has no right to condemn her for the choice she made, foolish it may have been. He has no right at all! She’s about to speak when her younger ancestor intervenes.

 _“Brother, be calm. Anger will get us nowhere,”_ Hamura says, a hint of rebuke in his voice.

He then turns to her and, with a far gentler voice than his older brother’s, he tells her, _“I sensed a disturbance, felt the call of a tenseigan in my bones. I first thought it merely a fluke but the feeling won’t go away. It constantly pricked at my subconscious like a splinter that refused to budge and when I searched, it led me to you Uchiha Hinata, bearer of both byakugan and sharingan—a curious mix of mine and my brother’s bloodline. How did you come about that seal child? Who gave it to you and why?”_

Feeling much more at ease with the younger, gentler brother, she willingly answers, “It’s your Lady Mother’s—Kaguya Ootsutsuki.”

She hears Hagoromo let out a strangled sound of shock and disbelief while the younger brother sighs heavily, his silver-gray eyes solemn.

“ _Tell us how this all came to be. Tell us why such a thing happened,”_ Hamura says afterwards, voice still so patient and kind. She decides he’s her favorite Ootsutsuki, from now and always.

With the memories painful and heavy in the back of her mind, she tells them a condensed version of the heart-rending series of events that led her to where she is now. “I come from the future, around a hundred years from now. That’s where I met you Hamura-sama and where I also learnt things about Hagoromo-sama. For lack of a better word, I’m a soul from the future reincarnated here in the past.”

 _“Why? How did this come to be?”_ Hagoromo asks, his gaunt face still showing his dismay at her revelation. It’s understandable of course. The two brothers, after all, battled their own mother and were responsible for her sealing. The Sage of Six Paths must be reeling at the thought of his evil mother being set free. But, like she realized before, he doesn’t know everything so he’ll just have to suck it up.

“The rest of the Ootsutsuki Clan came,” she tells them grimly, “They wreaked havoc and death and destruction and I…I watched everyone and everything I loved perish.”

She pauses when she sees both their eyes widen and horror blooms on their pale faces.

 _“No. This can’t be real,”_ Hagoromo says while shaking his head in denial. _“It can’t be.”_

“Oh but it is,” she tells him with a bitter smile, “You know what I say is true. Your mother broke the law of the Ootsutsuki Clan when she took the chakra fruit for herself. The rest came to punish her and to harvest all the chakra in the world. But not all humans are sheep, as I’m sure you know Hagoromo-sama. Some of us have grown and found ways to use and manipulate chakra with those of your bloodlines being particularly gifted at them. We did everything to fight them. We technically won but…it didn’t matter. With the deaths and destruction too profound and the earth far too scorched, it was a worthless victory in the end.”

Silence reign for a long while, the two brothers taking in her tale.

 _“What roles did we play? What role did Mother play?”_ Hagoromo asks next.

Feeling her chest constrict at her own tale, she takes ragged breaths several times before continuing, “You first granted your powers equally divided to the reincarnation of your sons Indra and Asura during a great war—one which came about due to Zetsu’s machinations to free your Lady Mother from her seal. Two years after that war, Hamura-sama gifted his chakra to me during an incident with his last descendant on the moon. As for your mother, Kaguya—she was freed from her seal and she helped us fight the other Ootsutsukis. When the end came, she offered me a chance. One chance. Thoughtless and careless I was and maddened with grief besides, I took it. Grabbed it desperately. I made a choice. But I see now for the cruel trick it was. She took advantage and made a fool of me.”

Hamura approaches her and clasps her shoulders tight and with sad eyes, he says, _“Mother was ever so cruel, even with her love for us. What happened? What exactly did she do to you, child?”_

“Lifetimes and lifetimes,” she divulges with a strangled laugh, hot tears forming at the corner of her eyes, “That’s what happened to me. So many of them. I couldn’t remember them all until now. This lifetime, I think, will be the last. The one chance she spoke of. But it’s not the chance I wanted. This isn’t the right time. I am in the past and the world and the people I truly wanted to save are over a hundred years in the future.”

 _“What cruel trick she played indeed,”_ Hamura mutters, a mournful look on his face while he moved his hands to wipe her tears. _Ah I understand now. This is how you activated the tenseigan. She’s now a part of you, sleeping like a see“d waiting to sprout within you. You’re her chosen vessel and one day, she will take over. You will be reduced to a speck inside her consciousness. You will exist for as long as she does,_ _trapped inside her with no recourse to freedom. Did you know this?”_ he asks softly, the lines on his face more pronounced and the look in his silver-gray eyes graver than she’s ever seen before.

She takes a shuddering breath and with clenched fists, responds to his question. “I didn’t know it when she presented me her offer but when the seal appeared on my palms—I realized what it is.”

And how that burnt and ached—the realization that she’d been very foolish and let Kaguya trick and turn her into her living container. Already she fears the time when the Rabbit Goddess takes over her body and she’ll be forced to take the role of a silent spectator inside her.

 _“You’ve seen how this seal works before,”_ he states with a perceptive look in his eyes.

“I have. In the future…that is my past, a son of mine had a seal like this given to him by another Ootsutsuki who eventually took over his body,” she tells him in a choked voice, closing her eyes when she feels tears form once more.

 _“Madness. This is all madness,”_ Hagoromo states with anger, his presence stronger and a bit suffocating to her, _“I knew her to be cruel but why this? Why lifetimes and why bring you here to the past when the enemies that needed to be taken care of are—Oh.”_ He stops speaking suddenly, a look of realization dawning on his face.

Hamura turns to his older brother and with furrowed brows asks, “What is it brother?”

 _“Knowledge—Mother is amassing knowledge. All for a greater chance at victory,”_ the Sage breathes out. _“She is powerful but her knowledge and skills in manipulating chakra is far too abysmal. Humans on the other hand, though less powerful and possessing very small amounts of it, continuously grow and evolve and find many ways to hone, manipulate and increase it. It makes sense that she would want to learn more to be able to fight and win with ease when the time comes. But how? How did she accomplish this feat of multiple reincarnations and a reverse one at that?“_ he asks, looking at her intently, the gaze of his rinnegan unfathomable once more.

Hinata shakes her head, trying not to quake under the intensity of the stare pinned on her. “I don’t know Hagoromo-sama. Like I said, I just now recall in this lifetime all my past lifetimes. Of the conversation I had with your Lady Mother, all I can remember is her offering me a chance which I accepted without careful thinking.”

To her relief, it’s Hamura who speaks next, sharing his thoughts calmly. _“The powers and abilities of the other members of the Ootsutsuki are unknown to us brother. Even Mother’s abilities are not all known to us, especially the Karma Seal. Perhaps it has something to do with her rinnesharingan and her pureblooded status.”_

 _“Perhaps it is as you say brother. Perhaps it is not. All I know is this is too heavy a burden for a single human,”_ the Sage says, wearily closing his eyes, “ _I must go, to think things through.”_

Hamura sighs, _“It’s time we leave anyway. We’ve been here for too long.”_

“Wait, please Hamura-sama,” Hinata hurriedly calls out.

_“Yes, child, what is it?”_

“The tenseigan—I know very little about it. I don’t know how it—I saw it used in the past and it looked dangerous.“

 _“Fret not,”_ Hamura says kindly, _“We will meet again, Hinata. I shall return to help you wield it. It’s far too dangerous a weapon to be used without proper training.”_

“Thank you Hamura-sama! I—thank you!” she says gratefully, relieved at the thought she’ll finally have someone who’ll be able to help her face such a daunting task.

 _“It is the least I can do for all the troubles we Ootsutsukis have wrought upon your life,”_ he murmurs, his voice growing faint with every word as he and his brother slowly disappeared before her very eyes.

* * *

Hashirama laughed while gasping, filling his struggling lungs with air before throwing a teasing smirk his friend’s way just to get him riled up. Madara always looked funny when he looked like a raging bull. “I win! Again! What’s the record now eh?”

Just as he intended, Madara’s face twisted into a funny glower before he snapped, “That’s to be expected. You started before me!”

“As they say, all’s fair in love and war Madara. And every competition we have is war,” he said while laughing at the dark scowl thrown at him. He then turned to their quiet companion, wanting to include her in the conversation, but found her looking down at the vast forest with a faraway look in her eyes.

“What’s got you looking so serious at the forest Hina-hime?” he asked. He reached out a hand to ruffle her hair—to catch her attention and stop her from looking so gloomy.

Little girls shouldn’t look so sad, especially one as cute as her. Hmmm. Perhaps he should start bringing flowers so she’s got something pretty to look at and play with while he and Madara sparred? Perhaps a sunflower? It’s fitting for her name. And maybe lilacs and irises for her eyes. Yes, he should do that. Girls like flowers after all, don’t they?

To his relief, she blinked and a faint smile appeared on her face, “It’s beautiful. It’ll make for a wonderful settlement someday, once peace is achieved, don’t you think so?”

Upon hearing her words, he turned to look at the same view she’s looking at and laughed, “You’re so right! It’s so vast and the trees will be good barrier and protection. We can build homes and buildings and schools where children can train and grow up stronger! We can assign missions based on an individual’s abilities and strengths! Have superiors who can properly assign ranks to commissions! It’ll be a place where kids won’t be sent to harsh battlefronts!”

“You’re spewing nonsense again Hashirama,” Madara commented with a smirk.

Hashirama pouted then opened his mouth to respond when little Hina-hime’s voice interrupted him.

“We can build hospitals and improve healing and medicine and make it more affordable even for civilians. We can build orphanages for children who have lost their parents and make sure they’re properly taken care of and provided education so they’ll have better choices when they grew up. What about you nii-san? What would you like to do?” she asked, turning her head to her brother.

Madara’s face turned serious and he looked at the forest too and hummed thoughtfully before answering, “Well, we can create laws that will see everyone treated equally and fairly. We can create a justice system that will make sure crimes are given proper punishments.”

“Yes!” Hashirama exclaimed and smiled wide in support of his two friends’ great ideas, “We can do all that and more!”

He’s really glad he met the siblings. They’re great company! It’s also a great relief to have more people he can share his views with and not be called a hopeless fool or an airhead.

“Konoha. We should name our village Konoha,” little Hina-hime said, her eyes closed and her smile a bit wider.

Hashirama’s thoughts halted and he tilted his head to look at her better, “Eh? Leaves? Don’t you want to name it with something more…hm…something better? Something amazing to the ears? Leaves kinda sounds…meh.”

“Oi, idiot, let Hina decide. She’s the first one to point out how this forest can be a great settlement after all” Madara said with a glare at him before reaching out a hand to ruffle his sister’s hair fondly.

“Hmmm… Well, what about naming it after her? A place under the sun. Or a place toward the sun. Doesn’t that sound a lot better?” Hashirama asked with a grin before joining Madara in the hair ruffling.

Ah he really envied Madara. What he would give to have a cute little sister he could hug anytime and dote on too! Touka didn’t count. She’s a little terror and a Tobi-clone.

“Stop it you two. I’m serious you know,” the little hime said with a laugh, swatting their hands off her head. “I really like the name Konoha. A Village Hidden in the Leaves. A home to people with the Will of Fire. Doesn’t that sound nice?” she asked.

Her voice sounded wistful and there was a strange soft look in her eyes. Something like fondness and longing and something that looked like...sorrow. Hashirama couldn’t really put his fingers on it but he’s certain he didn’t like it on her. It looked…really painful. Like really, really painful. He wondered if Madara knew about it. He’d have to ask him.

“People with the Will of Fire eh? I like it! I still say leaves sounds bland but! If that’s really what you want Hina-hime, then let’s go with that!” he said, purposefully making his voice sound enthusiastic.

When little Hina-hime smiled wide, he thought it was worth it.


	16. Hard Truths

* * *

Playing with the petals of one of the lovely flowers he collected from the sprawling gardens of his home, Hashirama's brows wrinkled when he saw that Madara was meeting him alone.

“Ne, Madara, where’s Hina-hime?”

“She can’t come today. Father got her to do important stuff at home,” his friend responded, ambling casually before taking a seat on top of their favorite stone perch. Madara then looked quizzically at the colorful bouquet on his lap, “What’re those flowers for? Are you going to court a girl or something after we’re done?”

“Of course not!” Hashirama quickly denied. “These are supposed to be for Hina-hime! So she has something to enjoy while we train, you know? And I’m only just thirteen Madara, why in the world would I be courting someone?”

He scrunched his nose at Madara’s ridiculous thought. He’s too young to be thinking of courting a girl. And he’s heir to his clan so he’ll probably have no say as to who he’ll marry someday. Knowing his father, he’ll arrange for him to marry a lady from another power shinobi clan to create more alliances just so they could get an edge over the Uchiha.

“Perhaps because you need the early start? I mean, with your ugly face and lame clothes and even stupider hair—you need all the help you can get!” the other boy commented with a loud snicker.

“What?! Take that back Madara!” he protested at the slight to his looks and outfit, “I’m sure I look way handsomer than you!”

When the other boy only laughed at him, Hashirama gave up and decided to change the topic to the one that bothered him the last time they met, “Ne, Madara, can I ask a question?”

“You’re already asking one, idiot,” the other boy responded.

“It’s about Hina-hime,” he responded after huffing and rolling his eyes at the other boy’s rudeness.

Madara sat up and faced him, a guarded look in his eyes. “What about my sister?”

Hashirama wanted to laugh at the overprotectiveness the other boy always displayed when it came to his litte sister but thought it better not to. Madara might just get angry and refuse to answer his questions.

He thought first how to best approach the situation regarding little Hinata-hime but finding no other way, he shrugged his shoulders and plowed ahead. “Why is she like that?”

His friend’s brows furrowed then with a defensive tone to his voice asked, “What do you mean? What’s wrong with my little sister? You have a problem with her or something?”

Hashirama hurriedly shook his head and waved a hand to placate the other boy, “No! Of course not! I like her very much! Only…I noticed…I mean, she’s only what? Eight? Nine? But she talks and acts so mature, Madara. And she has this…sad presence about her. It clings to her like a….like a…”

“I know what you’re saying,” his friend remarked, his posture relaxed but a solemn look appeared on his face. “Hinata’s always been so…serious, ever since she was very young. Since she was a baby, I think. Then…I told you before I got four brothers, didn’t I?” his friend asked quietly.

Engrossed in the tale his normally caustic friend was sharing, Hashirama quickly nodded his head. He did remember Madara telling him about his younger siblings. How the youngest two died together.

“When our mother died, not only did Hinata play the role of big sister, she also played the role of partly acting mother to our brothers, especially to her twin and the two littlest ones. Sure there’s our aunt who acted as their nurse, but our brothers—they really looked to Hina a lot for attention and affection. They constantly vied for her time and followed her around like ducklings. She played with them, trained with them, healed them when they got hurt, let them sleep with her during storms or when they got night terrors. She did almost everything a parent should. Then…the two youngest both died. It wasn’t a good death and Hina...”

Hashirama remained silent but with every word that came forth out of Madara’s mouth, he felt his chest constrict that it became a little hard to breathe.

It was such a heartbreaking story. It hurt him a lot when Kawarama died. To lose two brothers at the same time—he could only imagine how much worse the pain was for Madara and little Hinata

“How did they die?” he cautiously asked.

“Explosive tags. It was a gruesome scene,” Madara answered quietly before looking away with pained eyes before continuing. “Neither I nor our father felt the danger, you know? Only Hina did. She ran and tried to get to them, tried to save them but didn’t reach them in time. She lost consciousness and it lasted for days and when she woke up…well, it hasn’t been the same ever since.”

Hashirama swallowed the huge stone he felt at his throat and blinked quickly several times to prevent tears from forming. “I’m so sorry to hear it Madara. You and Hina-hime didn’t deserve to go through all that. Nor did your brothers.”

“No, they didn’t deserve it at all,” Madara agreed with a soft exhalation. “But it’s all done now and Hinata—She’s strong. She’ll get through this. She’s a fighter. She’s great at taijutsu, did you know that?”

“Is she?” Hashirama asked with a slow fond smile.

Hina-hime? The one who preferred to sit and watch quietly as he and Madara sparred? Taijutsu? But she’s such a cute little thing and looked like she couldn’t hurt a fly!

“Don’t underestimate my little sister, idiot. Just because she doesn’t like fighting doesn’t mean she can’t. She could probably beat the shit out of you,” Madara said, now grinning and his face looking more animated after such a dreadful tale.

Hashirama laughed, still down but somehow lighter now. “Aa, perhaps I’ll challenge her next time.”

“Just don’t cry if you lose,” his friend remarked before standing up and stretching his arms, “Alright! Enough with depressing stories! I’m challenging you to another spar Hashirama. And I’m going to win this time!”

* * *

When she and her brother next meet up with Hashirama, her byakugan catches sight of a familiar young white-haired and red-eyed boy spying on them from afar. She realizes instantly that things are about to change and she needs to take charge before everything become messy.

Her history has proven just how much Senju Tobirama distrusted the Uchiha Clan. She’s not sure how deep exactly his wariness for her clan runs at present but she’s sure, he’ll no doubt report to his father Hashirama’s activities and their secret meetings.

And she’s certain, it’ll all snowball from there, causing more and more problems along the way. It can lead to Senju Butsuma and her father battling it out. It might even drag many more people fighting and killing each other—people like Hashirama’s younger brothers and her own siblings.

She doesn’t want that to happen. There’s already enough hostility between their clans to last generations. She doesn’t want the friendship between her brother and Hashirama to be tainted by even more blood and death.

“Madara told me you’re great at taijutsu, Hina-hime. How about a spar next time?” the Senju heir asks as he noisily sits down by her side, interrupting her thoughts. When she turns to look at him, she sees the usual enthusiastic smile painted on his face.

She’s actually come to like the future hokage. He has the quirky attitude of being able to switch from laughing one moment to acting comically sullen the next. He’s mostly high-spirited, has a genuinely friendly attitude and just overall good-natured. That she will have to put an end to the interactions between him and her brother sends a pang of sorrow through her chest.

But needs must. Their friendly meetings must come to an end, at least for now. But it doesn’t have to be a sad or bitter or angry separation of friends. She’s going do her best to turn it into one of trust and hope for the future.

“There can’t be a next time for all of us,” she answers softly, “At least, not for a good long while.”

Hashirama’s bright grin immediately falls. “I don’t understand Hina-hime. Why can’t there be a next time?” he asks, head tilted to the side while looking at her with slightly wounded and confused dark eyes.

Madara, who sits on her other side, also swiftly turns to face her. “What are you talking about Hina?”

She takes one of each of their hands, links her fingers with them and moves a bit so they’re forming a triangle and can see each other better. “Listen to me, the two of you,” she says in the gravest voice she can muster. “The truth I am about to reveal might cause you both pain but know that what I did, what I’m doing, it’s for the good of us all.”

The atmosphere grows heavy and she feels them both grow tense, both of their strong, larger hands tightening around hers.

“Is there a problem? Did something bad happen? You’re acting a bit scary right now,” Hashirama comments with an uneasy smile on his tanned face.

“We have to stop these meetings. If we don’t, I fear it will only lead to disaster for all of us and our families.”

“What?” Hashirama breathes out, now even more confused. “Why do you say that hime? We’re friends aren’t we?”

“Your brother—white hair and red eyes—Tobirama isn’t it? He has spied on you and saw us,” she tells him gently, tightening her hold when his hand involuntarily jerks.

“Tobirama spied on us?” he asks with a panicked look, “Tobi? But how—no, wait. Hina-hime, how do you know my brother’s name?”

“I know who you are Hashirama. I know which clan you’re from,” she reveals quietly, ignoring his question.

Hashirama’s face pales and his dark eyes look at her warily. She also sees him visibly struggle not to snatch his hand from hers.

“What are you talking about Hinata? Who is he? How do you know his brother’s name and how do you know which clan this idiot comes from?” Madara immediately asks demandingly.

“I met them very briefly, when I saved a child from his clan from being killed by men of ours,” she explains, this time facing her frowning brother.

The two boys both jolt at the same time, their breathing turned shallow. With guarded looks, they move away from each other, creating some distance.

It is painful and so very sad—to see distrust start to spring up like a wall between the two. She only hopes that by the end of the conversation, the wall lowers once more and they can go back to being what they were before.

“When? When did you see me? I’ve never met you before Hina-hime,” Hashirama says with an apprehensive look while at the same time Madara asks in a harsh tone, “His clan is an enemy of ours?”

Squeezing her brother’s hand to provide quiet assurance, she turns to address Hashirama’s questions first, “It happened two months ago. I was traveling through the forest and on my way home when I saw five men from our clan hunt down a child from your clan. A young boy, perhaps around my age, with two-toned hair. I used a henge when I rescued him and put him right on your path.”

Hashirama gasps, stunned, then with wide eyes exclaims. “It was you?! It was you who saved my brother? But your eyes!”

She nods and closes her eyes before activating her mangekyou and byakugan then lifted her lids to show him.

“Hinata, what the hell are you doing? Stop it! Turn it off! Turn it off now!” her brother orders hotly, jostling her arm hard.

“What’s that strange eye? The one on the left is a byakugan, isn’t it? Are you a Hyuuga then? But why does Madara have dark eyes?” Hashirama asks, eyes rapt on her face and his countenance a mix of utter confusion and trepidation.

“No! I want my questions answered this time. Is the idiot from an enemy clan?” Madara grits out with a dark scowl.

Hinata looks at them both first, taking note of their stiff postures and the heavy air of distrust. In a firm voice, she tells them, “Let’s make a pact first. Swear that when I reveal the truth, you will not attack each other. You will not run away. You will both stay and we will all talk calmly, like the friends we have become. Swear it. Both of you.”

Both their faces show unwillingness but, after a short while, Hashirama nods and swears in a solemn voice, “I swear it. I swear it to you Hina-hime, and to you Madara. You’re my friends. I will not attack or run away. I will stay after Hina-hime tells the truth and will listen to what she has to say.”

She turns to her quiet brother and sees Madara pinch the bridge of his nose and breathe deep before also saying, “I swear the same. I will not attack or run away.”

“Thank you,” she says, giving them both a smile of appreciation. “Now allow me to make the proper introductions.” She gives both their hands a squeeze before she continues. “Nii-san, meet Hashirama-sama, heir to the Senju Clan. Hashirama-sama, meet my brother, Madara, heir to the Uchiha Clan.”

“Senju!”

“Uchiha!”

The two boys splutter loudly at the same time. Shock, incredulity, animosity, dismay and many more emotions suddenly roll off of them in waves. Their chakras rise, erratic, making the atmosphere stuffy.

“Little sister, have you forgotten how our youngest siblings—the little brothers you both loved very much—died so brutally by Senju hands? How they were blown to pieces and the lake turned red from their blood? How you went unconscious for almost ten days because of it?” her brother asks with piercing with a dangerous tone to his voice and piercing dark eyes aimed at Hashirama. 

The effect on the intended recipient was immediate. Like a heavy curtain, sorrow falls on Hashirama’s face upon hearing her brother’s words and he takes trembling breaths before looking at her and Madara with grief-stricken, penitent eyes.

“Madara, Hina-hime, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…I never…” he chokes and trails off, face a ruin from the verbal blow her brother dealt.

She squeezes his hand hard before responding to Madara’s harsh reminders.

“I have not forgotten out little brothers, Nii-san. Just as I have not forgotten how Senju children were hunted down and killed by our people. As I said earlier, I stopped one of those from happening.”

“What do you want? Why have you kept this secret, knowing that we are from enemy clans? Why did you sit by and watch and let us become friends knowing that one day we might kill each other in the field of battle? Why Hina?” Madara asks, his voice a bit hoarse and filled with anger and bitterness. His eyes, she notices, have activated involuntarily, both left and right showing three tomoes.

Hashirama flinches upon seeing it and looks at her with dark eyes pleading for explanations.

“Isn’t it obvious?” she asks them with a smile, her own eyes going hot. “I wanted you two to become friends. I wanted you to know that the two of you are not so different. That the both of you have experienced almost the same tragedies and desire almost the same things. I wanted you to hear each other’s hopes and dreams and plans for the future.”

She lets go of their hands to wipe her eyes with the sleeves of her dress when her sight goes blurry.

When they remain silent, she continues, “As things stand right now, peace looks unattainable with our fathers and the older people so intent in fighting and destroying each other’s clans. Many people have died—are dying and will still die. Men and women and children. Our little brothers…But someday…someday the two of you will become the leaders of the Senju and the Uchiha. You can stop all this madness, this senseless war between our peoples. You two can make a change. You two can make peace.”


	17. Oaths and Seals

Hashirama quickly swung his head to look at his younger brother who sat to his left.

“Father asked me to tail you. I’m the better sensor,” Tobirama said with a shrug, a faintly apologetic look on his face.

He tried very hard not to give Tobirama a disappointed or hurt look of betrayal. He already knew his white-haired brother spied on them and has revealed everything to their father. He shouldn’t be surprised anymore. Hina-hime told him so, hadn’t she?

_Your brother—white hair and red eyes—Tobirama isn’t it? He has spied on you and saw us._

“Tobirama said he didn’t get the little girl’s name but that he heard you call the boy Madara. I have intelligence that the bastard Tajima’s son has that same name. You’re brother’s description of them has also confirmed it. You’ve been meeting the Uchiha heir,” his father spat the words with hard, accusing eyes.

He bowed his head and clutched his bent knees as he struggled to keep his breathing calm, as he fought to prevent himself from becoming a trembling mess. He, Madara and Hina-hime have already discussed this scenario. All he had to do now was simply follow little Hina-hime’s advice to make sure things don’t worsen.

“This is our chance to attack and deal a heavy blow to the Uchiha. When you meet with them next, Tobirama and I will come along, do you understand, Hashirama?”

_We have to stop these meetings. If we don’t, I fear it will only lead to disaster for all of us and our families._

What if she hadn’t been there earlier today to catch his brother spying? What if she hadn’t been there to reveal everything and helped sort things out between him and her own brother? He’s certain it would’ve led to a disaster of epic proportions and fractured his friendship with Madara. It would’ve caused them all a lot of pain and sorrow and taken away any possibility of peace.

“Hashirama, are you listening to me? Do you understand what I am telling you right now, boy?”

His father’s loud and harsh tone jolted him from his thoughts and when he saw the flaring nose and angry glare, he swallowed hard to ease the tightness he felt in his throat before answering, “We…we’re not going to meet again.”

“What?! Are you defying my orders now, boy? Are you now sympathizing with the enemy of our house? Don’t you know such an act is considered treason?”

_You can tell your father the truth, Hashirama-sama. You can tell him that I’m a sensor too. That I discovered your brother spying and realized we might be in danger and so decided to cut ties with you. This way, he will not put all the blame on you. He won’t punish you so severely. And the problem won’t escalate._

Gods but he’s so thankful Little Hinata became his friend and joined him and her brother during their meet-ups. So glad she kept careful watch and was so smart—smarter than both him and Madara that’s for sure. Even now, she’s still helping him get out of trouble with his father. When they reunite in the future, he’ll make sure to gift her with something really special and thank her from the bottom of his heart.

Meeting his father’s furious eyes, he carefully answered. “I truly didn’t know they were Uchiha, Father. And I didn’t tell them I’m a Senju. It was but a chance meeting between us. I swear it. As for why we’re not meeting again…The little girl’s also a sensor. She discovered Tobi spying and warned her brother. She thought they might be in danger and decided to break ties with me. They don’t want to see me again.”

_Thump!_

Hashirama lost balance and fell to his side. Then he felt the heat and the searing pain on his cheek.

 _A punch from Father_ , _of course_ , he thought with sadness and bitterness as he tasted the liquid iron in his mouth. It’s not so surprising. His father did love to discipline them using not only his words but also his fists. Using his arms as support, he helped himself get back to seiza and waited to hear more of his father’s diatribe.

“It’s a pity Tobirama was not born first with your gifts. His wits would’ve made him a far better heir than you are. You’re powerful Hashirama, but what an utter fool you are sometimes. Be sure to learn from this experience and do not make the same mistake again. The next time you do, I’ll make sure you’ll regret it for a very long time. Do you hear me, boy?”

“Yes, Father,” Hashirama said quietly then bit his tongue after, knowing any more sound from his mouth would only cause his father’s wrath to intensify. He simply kept his head lowered and waited until the harsh man got up, slid open the shoji door and walked away without another word.

* * *

“Tch! Anija, when will you learn? You have to stop doing these ridiculous things. You’re heir and will someday be Clan Head. You have to take things more seriously.” Tobirama said with a scowl as soon as their father was gone from their sight and hearing.

Hashirama pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed at the admonition and the look of displeasure his younger brother aimed at him. From his father to his brother—his family was out to tell him off for being a hopeless fool it seemed. Who’s it going to be next, he wondered.

“It’s been a long and tiring day, brother. I’d like to rest,” he said in a subdued tone before getting up to his feet.

“What were you thinking?” his brother asked with his usual frown, making him pause in his steps. “What were you thinking playing and becoming friends with those people? You didn’t even know them.”

“That’s exactly why I played and tried to become friends with them Tobira—because I didn’t know them. We were strangers to each other. We didn’t give each other our clan’s names. I had no reason to hate or hurt them. We simply…acted like the kids we are and did fun things like train and spar together.”

Tobirama gave a huff of annoyance then with fierce, narrowed eyes asked, “How did she do it? The little girl I mean. Because I’m pretty sure I hid my presence and chakra very well. Was she powerful? Powerful than I?”

“I don’t know, brother,” he responded before turning away.

He loved his brother but he’ll not betray his new friends, especially little Hina-hime who was so good and kind. Whose tears fell down her small, pale face as she spoke so passionately about him and Madara being friends and having the same hopes and dreams. Whose voice broke when she spoke about making peace. Whose eyes showed unbearable pain and sorrow when she spoke about one day seeing a village rise in the middle of the great forest.

Konoha. A Village Hidden in the Leaves. That’s their promise. His and Madara’s. When the right time comes.

* * *

“Who…who are you?” Hinata asks the stranger after warily taking a few steps back.

The being is no doubt an Ootsutsuki. Tall, pale-skinned, long white hair that went down his waist, pale eyes and horn-like protrusions on his forehead. He’s quite handsome and of noble bearing and—with a pang of sorrow in her heart—she thinks of how very similar he looks to Neji.

“Aa, you do not recognize my younger form?” the being asks with a faint smile, “It is I, Hamura.”

Cheeks flushing a bit at her mistake, Hinata hurriedly bows in greeting, “Apologies Hamura-sama! I didn’t…I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you right away.”

“It’s no matter. No need to apologize, Little One. As promised the last time we spoke, I have come to start your lessons. We must see to it as early as possible to ensure no problem arises with your tenseigan,” her ancestor explains, his younger appearance matched with a calm and gentle voice.

“Are we doing the training here? In my dreams?” Hinata asks while giving her surroundings a dubious look.

Once more she’s standing on top of a ruined building in the desolate citadel on the moon—the dream version of it, at least. The place does look well enough but…to train in a dream? It sounds a bit…cracked.

“Yes,” her ancestor’s calm voice broke through her thoughts. Then to her surprise, he bends his body and sits down on the dusty concrete, his expression so serene it reminds her of a monk in meditation. “This is for the best. Here, I can control the flow of time and no one can interrupt us. Come and sit down, Hinata,” he says while patting the area in front of him with a pale hand.

She takes a breath then follows his command, making sure to leave ample space between the two of them.

“Our first lesson, Hinata, is on seals,” he says after she settles down.

“Eh?” she asks in surprise, looking at him with wide eyes. She’s expecting lessons on how to wield her tenseigan, not how to create seals.

“Aa. You’ll be learning barrier and protective seals first. Activating the tenseigan will cause your chakra to fluctuate wildly—something that will affect your physical body and your surroundings. We must take proper measures to ensure no one will feel your chakra flares and barge in your room and interrupt us.”

Seeing the sense in his words, she nods her head and watches in silence as Hamura then wipes the dusty space between them with his left hand.

“Don’t worry, there are only three. I will draw the seals one by one. Activate your eyes. Use your sharingan to memorize them and take note of the amount of chakra I use with your byakugan,” he says before biting the thumb of his right hand.

Quickly activating her sharingan and byakugan, she watches with rapt attention as he starts to draw a seal using his blood. It’s a highly complicated one—something she’s certain she’ll never be able to do without the perfect copy ability of the sharingan and the great chakra perception of the byakugan.

“You must use your blood when you recreate these seals, Hinata. Not ink,” her ancestor says in a grave voice, “Blood seals have more power in them and will hold unless destroyed by someone with more power in their blood than yours.”

Hinata nods her head in understanding and continues to watch when a thought strikes like lightning in her mind. With a gasp, she looks at her ancestor, ignoring the seal he’s making.

“Seals! You’re a master in seals. Did you create the Curse Seal of the Hyuuga Clan? Is there a way to have it removed?” she asks in a hurry with her heart pounding in her chest at the possibility of finally finding a solution to get rid of the despicable Curse Seal that has marred Neji’s forehead and made slaves of half of her old family.

Hamura pauses in making the seal and looks at her with solemn eyes. “You want to get rid of that seal?” he asks in an utterly serious voice.

“Of course!” she says fervently, “I mean, why not? It’s despicable. It makes slaves of half of the Hyuuga Clan. It’s a rotten thing that must be eliminated.”

Her ancestor wipes the blood on his thumb and tucks both his hands in his sleeves before sitting up with his back straight, the unfinished seal between them left forgotten. “Do you know the history of the Hyuuga Clan, Hinata, in the futures you came from? And why the Curse Seal was created?” he asks, his pale eyes intently meeting hers.

For a moment, she flounders at the questions thrown at her. With furrowed brows, she tries to remember all she can of her old clan before responding, “Well…you are our ancestor, are you not? From what I know, the Hyuuga are the descendants you left behind when you decided to make the Moon your residence instead. As for the curse seal—it was created to protect the byakugan at first but became a tool of subjugation as time passed. Or is that version of events a lie?”

“Little One,” her ancestor says softly with a faint, sad smile on his lips, “My brother and I were still very young when we fought and sealed away our mother. When I left the Earth, I had not fathered children yet. There was no Hyuuga Clan left behind when I went to the Moon.”

Hinata's breathing stutters at the astonishing revelation. “No Hyuuga Clan left? Then…How did? You’re not our ancestor?” She shakes her head at the absurd thought. “No. That’s stupid. Are we…the Hyuuga Clan’s from the Moon?” she hesitatingly asks.

“Yes,” he replies succinctly.

“Oh…” Hinata quietly says, mind spinning as she thinks of the many possible scenarios of how the Hyuuga Clan came to be.

Then, realizing that the ruins of the citadel on the Moon and in her dreams was where her ancestors once lived, she stands up and looks around, taking in everything. She didn’t think much of the ruins before. She only saw crumbling structures and emptiness and silence. Now, she sees an important connection, the beginnings and the history of her old clan.

She feels then sees Hamura stand beside her as she watches the remnants of what she’s sure was a mighty city once.

“Was it the war on the Moon? The war that saw the Branch House annihilate the entire Main House?” she asks her ancestor, remembering the events that happened involving Ootsutsuki Toneri. In her heart and mind though, she’s already certain that the tragic event was what sparked the Hyuuga migration to Earth.

“So you do know that part of history,” Hamura says with a heavy sigh before continuing, “Yes. Yes it was indeed the war on the Moon. My Celestial Decree before I left the mortal realm was for my descendants to keep watch over humanity and to use the Energy Vessel I made to protect the world my brother created when the need asked for it. But the Branch House misinterpreted my decree and acted upon their hubris. They slaughtered their own flesh and blood, killed old men, defenseless women and even innocent babes and desecrated my hopes and dreams of freedom and peace.”

“But I don’t understand. Why was there a Main and Branch House in the first place? Why the separation?” she asks, heart heavy with the new knowledge but confused still of so many things pertaining to her old clan.

“The segregation was due to the powers they held and their roles. The Main House consisted those of purer, stronger blood and more powerful eyes while the Branch was of those with more diluted blood. The Main House studied the dimensions my mother visited and watched out for threats against Earth while the Branch oversaw the Energy Vessel I created. Take note though Hinata that despite the separation, there was equality. There were no masters or slaves. Over time, the Branch grew to worship the Vessel and, upon seeing how utterly corrupted my brother’s world had turned out to be, they attempted to use it to rid the Earth of humanity and start anew. The Main House did their duty of protecting Earth by going to war with the Branch. They won and stopped the Branch House and the Vessel, but their numbers had dwindled far too much. To avoid being completely wiped out by the remaining larger Branch House, the few remaining Main House members fled to Earth.”

“And founded the Hyuuga Clan. Towards the Sun—that’s the name they chose. Too angry and bitter over what’s become of their fates, they decided to forget about their Moon origins,” Hinata whispers, then asks aloud, “But why the curse seal? How did that one come to be?”

She hears her Ootsutsuki ancestor let out another great sigh before responding, “The Branch House on the Moon tried to revive the Vessel. They used their eyes at first but when that didn’t work, they decided to hunt the few remaining members of the Main House on Earth. And that’s when the Main House Hyuuga created the Curse Seal. Because their numbers have suffered greatly, they decided not to kill the Branch Members they captured. In retaliation and as punishment for their crimes, they were instead sealed and used by the Main House for many purposes—as slaves, as broodmares to add to their numbers and strength, as an army to protect the Main House they once betrayed with their own lives.”

“And to ensure the Clan Head and his line won’t change this decision, to ensure they’re kept in line, their younger children are given the seal and sent to the Branch House,” Hinata says while closing her eyes, feeling hollow and tired upon hearing the end of the tragic tale.

It all makes sense to her now. It all finally makes sense why the Hyuuga always kept a tight lid of its origins. Why its history was always shrouded in mystery. Why the Curse Seal was created and too hard to get rid of. A house divided. Ignorance and hubris turned to war and deaths of so many people followed by a vengeance that will last generations.

“What a terrible mess,” she mutters softly.

“Indeed,” her ancestor says in agreement.

“Why didn’t you interfere? If you knew what was happening, why didn’t you do anything? Why let your descendants suffer?” she asks, meeting his eyes.

She wants to know so badly why powerful beings such as Ootsutsuki Hagoromo and Ootsutsuki Hamura are content to simply stand by and watch. She wants to understand how beings who appear to be benevolent and kind can stomach watching their descendants kill each other because of their foolishness and pride.

“I understand it must seem cruel to you—that I did nothing. But Little One, my brother and I fought our mother and sealed her away because she was a tyrant. Hagoromo and I have no intentions of following her footsteps. We have not the desire to force our will upon others and thus have sworn never to intervene in the affairs of the living when we died. We Ootsutsukis carry a great deal of power—of chakra, as I am sure you now know. And power is dangerous. It always attracts the worst and corrupts even the best. Us continuously intervening would cause nothing but greater and greater disasters. Not only that—my brother and I also feared our presence would catch the attention of other Ootsutsukis out there and cause them to attack Earth.”

She nods her head in understanding, feeling a bit ashamed for her earlier thoughts. He’s right. She’s seen just how powerful Ootsutsukis are. Has seen the destruction they’re capable of making. And it also makes sense that he and his brother would want to avoid being a tyrant, considering their past experience with Kaguya.

“Then why are you helping me now?” she asks curiously.

He approaches her and reaches for her hands, showing the Karma Seals on her palms. “Because of this and the tenseigan. We swore not to intervene in human affairs, but we can when it comes to Ootsutsuki matters. Aside from me, you’re the only other tenseigan wielder ever known. You must learn how to wield it properly and learn to be stronger without relying on the Karma Seal. You know what will happen if you’re going to access the powers and chakra from it, don’t you?”

“Yes,” she whispers, voice shaky. She knows. She’s seen it. The more the seal is used, the more Kaguya can simply take over. She can’t let that happen. She simply cannot. The Rabbit Goddess will have to wait a very long time because she’s not going to go down without a fight.

“Good. Let’s go continue with those barrier seals you so rudely interrupted me from making,” he says and turns to go back to their original position.

“Wait!” she calls out in a hurry, remembering her earlier goal. “What about the Hyuuga Curse Seal Hamura-sama?”

“You still want to get rid of the Curse Seal even after knowing its origins?”

“Yes, of course,” she answers in a firm voice, “Those who have committed crimes are long gone now. Children are not their parents and should not be punished for sins their mothers and fathers committed.”

Hamura’s lips curl up and his solemn pale eyes brighten a little. “Aa, I think you and I will get along well.”

“So…You’ll teach me how to get rid of the Curse Seal?” she asks with hopeful eyes.

“Yes. But much later, Hinata, when your training is done. Come now,” he says before walking away.

She follows him quickly with lighter steps, for once grateful and happy with meeting an Ootsutsuki.


	18. Gifts and Gains

“You said you’ve seen the tenseigan at work before. What do you know of its capabilities?” her ancestor asks.

Hinata nods her head and tries to remember everything she can of the battle between Naruto and Ootsutsuki Toneri and shares it with him.

She tells him how she saw the doujutsu was used to move the moon. How it granted Toneri a chakra mode of some kind. How it gave him the ability to control attractive and repulsive forces.

She told him of the enormous golem the tenseigan could control somehow. How Toneri rambled about using it to revive the Earth after seeing it destroyed and rid of humanity.

“Hmmm, I see. That’s a good start but it’s not all the tenseigan can do,” Hamura murmurs softly.

“It can do more than those?” she asks, highly intrigued at the comment.

Hamura nods in confirmation, a few locks of his long white hair falling elegantly down his front. “The tenseigan, as you know, is an Ootsutsuki doujutsu. It requires more chakra and energy to wield and it’s not as versatile as the rinnegan my brother has but it is still a weapon, though mainly meant for defense.”

Her curiosity piqued, Hinata asks him of its other functions. She knows that everything Toneri has shown during his battle with Naruto cannot possibly be all that the tenseigan is capable of. He only had the tenseigan for what? A day? He didn’t have the time to really explore its full potential which she knows played a lot in his quick defeat.

“As you said, there is the chakra mode. It grants the wielder greater strength, speed and durability. How much they are amplified depends on your chakra and mastery of the eye. In this mode, you also have the gravitational push and pull, the Truth Seeking Orbs which gives you access to all natures including yin and yang. The number of the orbs, again, depends on your mastery and chakra. The rest of its powers involve its perception capacity. It enhances everything a byakugan can do by several folds. For example, with the tenseigan, you can have a range of sight of hundreds, perhaps thousands of miles.”

“Thousands…of miles?” Hinata chokes out in stunned disbelief.

Thousands of miles. If it isn’t the same being who has activated the same doujutsu telling her this, she will think it utterly ludicrous. Then again, the Ootsutsukis and their powers are all ridiculous, aren’t they?

“Yes,” Hamura confirms with a small amused smile. “The moon is thousands of miles away, Hinata, how did you think I watch over the world my brother created, hm?”

“Oh…Right. Of course,” she says, faintly blushing in embarrassment. “What else can it do?”

Hamura goes on to tell her more. “The tenseigan’s enhanced perception also allows you to sense invisible chakra, negative energies and barriers.”

Hinata’s breathing hitches. Invisible chakra…negative energies… “Like the Jougan...”

“What?” Hamura asks with a raised brow, “What did you say?”

“It’s…my son. I had a son who gained a doujutsu called Jougan,” she tells him softly while looking down, loss gnawing once more in her chest, leaving her feeling bereft.

Boruto. That was his name, wasn’t it? Her first ever born child. She can’t remember all of his face anymore. She cannot separate the first Boruto from the second and the third and the rest. They all bleed into one single entity and all she can recall is hair golden as the sun, eyes blue as the sky, the cute whiskers on his cheeks, a loud voice and an infectious grin.

Isn't that just terrible? What kind of mother fails to differentiate her children from the others?

“I’ve never heard of that doujutsu before,” Hamura’s soft voice pierces through her depressing thoughts. “Who fathered your child?”

She forcefully wrenches herself away from the painful recollection and answers. “He’s Hagoromo-sama’s descendant. A reincarnation of his son Asura.”

“Indeed?” Hamura asks with interest in his pale eyes. “Did you have other children with him Hinata? Or with other descendants of my brother? Children with new doujutsu?”

“Yes, I had other children,” Hinata admits softly, “Many times, I was married to the reincarnation of Indra. But my children with him didn’t possess any new doujutsu. Our children had either the byakugan, the sharingan or a mix of the two.”

“I see,” he says, nodding before turning somber one more. “You’ve lived many lifetimes you said. Do you remember all of them Little One?”

A short, bitter laugh leaves her mouth upon hearing the question, “No. No. I remember many, many things but the smaller details…I guess the human brain can only remember so much details.”

“Anyone in your position would’ve chosen to become indifferent to avoid getting hurt even more. Some would even choose to run away and leave everything behind to wallow in their grief and despair. But you—you retained the ability to show compassion and care for others around you. It’s very noble of you, Hinata,” he says gently.

At that moment, looking into his pale eyes filled with so much empathy and kindness, the months upon months of carrying the unbearable weight of her memories all alone by herself and with no one to confide to all take their toll on her.

She grabs the opportunity to unburden herself with another. Through the hot tears building in the back of her eyes and the tightness in her throat, like fireballs, she spews all the words she cannot tell anyone else. She reveals to her ancestor the many memories she cannot share with anyone else.

It lasts for hours and through it all, she’s reduced to an embarrassing, aching, panting mess of salty tears and snot while her ancestor, Ootsutsuki Hamura, remains pristine and regal and just quietly listening, asking a few questions of his own, making soft hums and patting her shoulders gently.

But when it’s over, she thinks it is all so very worth it. She is able to breathe just a little bit easier, her heart is just a little bit lighter and the rest of her feels just a little bit better.

* * *

After only around ten minutes of activating her tenseigan, Hamura has her deactivate it and Hinata slowly slumps to the ground, breathless and a little exhausted with more than half of her chakra reserves gone.

“It is as I feared,” he says softly, his own byakugan active to observe her chakra network better. “You have great chakra reserves and impressive control for one so young, Hinata, but the tenseigan requires more chakra and energy.”

“I have to better improve my chakra levels fast,” she mutters in conclusion with her breathing still ragged.

“Yes,” he agrees, “With your chakra level as it is right now, it will be detrimental for you to use the tenseigan.”

Hinata sighs in disappointment. She’s already known that her chakra level isn’t up to par for her to be able to wield the tenseigan properly. But she needs to be able to do it and she needs it fast. Possession of the sharingan, the byakugan and the tenseigan puts her in real danger. She needs to be able to defend herself whenever necessary.

An idea entering her mind, she sits up to look at him. “Natural energy can help, can’t it? But Sage Mode training takes a long time. It takes even decades for some. I cannot…I cannot leave my family to go gallivanting in search of toads and snakes who can teach me how to achieve it. Is there another way to accumulate natural energy?”

“Fret not, Hinata. There’s no need for you to go through that. Come, I’ll give you my chakra.”

“You will?” she breathes in surprise at his words, not expecting for him to say them. 

“You did say I gave it to you before, didn’t you? I am just returning what I have already gifted you,” he says with his lips curling up a bit.

“But…I am now an Uchiha,” she reminds him. “Wouldn’t you rather gift it to one of your bloodline, when the right time comes?”

The chakra she inherited from him has helped her in many ways in the past. Receiving them once more will greatly help her, especially if she is to master the tenseigan. She’s no longer a Hyuuga though. She’s now an Uchiha.

“A hundred, perhaps a thousand times you were born a Hyuuga, blood of my blood. And even with my brother’s blood running in your veins now, you still manifested the tenseigan, not the rinnegan. That makes you my heiress.”

He says the words so calmly and matter-of-factly but they don’t fail to overwhelm her. Her throat clogged and her chest tight, she whispers gratefully, “Thank you.”

“There is a condition though, Little One. It comes with a seal. You are still so very young and you don’t have full control of your powers yet. Aside from our training, you must only access my chakra when absolutely necessary else you might attract the attention of Zetsu and the remaining Branch Family on the Moon and cause them to hunt you down. Do you understand?”

Yes, of course. How can she forget them? If they catch wind that she has Hamura’s chakra and the tenseigan, Toneri’s family will surely come for her, kill her and pluck out her eyes so they could use it for their sordid plan of ridding the earth of humanity. And Zetsu…

With a shiver running down her back, Hinata immediately agrees, “Yes, I understand, Hamura-sama.”

* * *

When she first presents the idea of greenhouse vegetable and medicinal herb gardens (which she calls glass gardens for easier understanding) from modern Konoha and Suna, she is met with skepticism and a denial from her father.

After about two months of her consistent, passionate speeches about being able to plant all year round and having better plant protection from rough weather and serious pest and insect infestation, he gets tired, gives up, and agrees to have her do a trial greenhouse garden for a year.

Her father’s precious support secured, she starts her project by getting help from the men of their clan to build two large one story buildings—the first was for the vegetable garden and the second for a medicinal and herb garden. They import the glass required for the roofing from merchants from the Land of Wind.

While the structures are being built, she launches a campaign to garner labor support and gets the eager assistance of her cousins Emika and Natsuki and a gaggle of eager younger female cousins learning healing under her.

They go about consulting the farmers in the surrounding lands for the best type of soil and fertilizers and gather the seeds and saplings necessary to start the project.

After the structures are built and their plant boxes are arranged inside and the protective seals she learned from her Ootsutsuki ancestor are secretly put in place, they finally begin.

Using the knowledge they gained from the farmers and the gardening knowledge she gained from the Hyuuga Branch members and Suna greenhouses from lifetimes ago, they start it simple by planting those that are easy to grow like leafy greens and root vegetables.

They plant neat little rows of broccoli, cabbages, carrots, celery, cucumbers, ginger, onions, peas, potatoes, radishes, soybeans, spinach, tomatoes, turnips and a few more which are often key ingredients to their culinary dishes.

As for the medicinal and herb greenhouse garden, they also start it simple by planting only the ones that are common, simple and easy to grow and normally used in the medicines, ointments and other herbal remedies they produce.

They start by cultivating basil, calendula, chamomile, Echinacea, feverfew, gingko, ginseng, lemon balm, yarrow, valerian root and more common ones that are also used for dishes.

It is a lot of work and slow going at first but when the plants start to grow and prove they’re healthier inside the greenhouses, when only after a few months they’re able to harvest the fruits of their labors, she gets her father’s full approval and garner even more support from more members of the clan.

Soon, the women’s interest in maintaining gaudy, colorful flower gardens wanes and a fierce competition of starting and maintaining smaller herb and vegetable gardens begins.

Within half a year, almost half of the Uchiha territory is dotted with rows upon rows of green plants and their colorful flowers and bounties.

By the time the trial period her father gave her ends, they have a total of six greenhouses and their profit from creating medicines, ointments and herbal remedies almost doubles.

* * *

“Anija…this is!”

Hashirama laughed when he heard the awe in his younger brother’s voice while staring at the scene in front of them.

He then heard Tobirama ask, “What’s this new technique called then?”

He waved his hand and proudly presented the results of his newly invented jutsu using his rare gift of Wood Release. “Behold my new jutsu! I call it Mokuton Kajukai Kourin! Isn’t it just wonderful?”

“Deep Forest Bloom. It’s impressive, Nii-sama!” Itama praised, his wide eyes rapt at the view in front of them.

Hashirama reached out an arm and hugged his little brother, happily accepting the praise.

He’s quite proud of his accomplishment. He worked on it for weeks on end and has just mastered it. 

Using his unique element of Wood Release, he forced the trees and other plants to grow rapidly, creating a dense forest of flowering trees whose pollens can render his enemies unconscious. The trees could also restrain his enemies when needed.

“I’m surprised, Anija, and impressed of course. It's good to see you spend less time goofing off these days and and devoting more to training and inventing jutsus,” his younger white-haired brother remarked while giving him a look.

Hashirama looked away and suppressed a twitch after hearing his brother’s comment and seeing the knowing look in his peculiar red eyes.

The ever observant Tobirama was right. Now that he could no longer meet with Madara and little Hina-hime, he has more free time in his hands. As such he’s decided to devote even more time in training and creating even more jutsu.

He needed to be able to stand up to his father one day. He needed to become even more powerful and strong. He needed to be able to fight for what he believed in. 

He has a promise to keep after all.

* * *

She’s training with Hamura when the barrier seal of her room is disturbed. Instantly, the dream ends and she jolts into wakefulness with Madara’s voice calling her from the other side of the shoji screen.

“Hina! Hinata wake up!”

She inhales and exhales a few times to get rid of the shock she experienced from the sudden switch from dream to reality before getting up and opening her door.

“Nii-san? What is it?” she asks Madara while looking at his face to determine if there’s danger involve.

“The Nara and Yamanaka Heads are here Hina, along with an Akimichi representative,” he tells her with some excitement and incredulity in his eyes and voice.

“W-what? What did you say?” she asks in a higher than normal tone, stunned at the information her brother just spewed.

“The Nara and Yamanaka are here, with an Akimichi representative. To seek an alliance most likely. But they need help, I think. Father asked me to get you. He wants to speak with you. Hurry up and get dressed, Hina. I’ll wait here,” he says before hurriedly closing the door once more.

She quickly cleanses her face, takes off her sleeping yukata and replaces it with a more appropriate but not too stuffy and formal kimono and makes her appearance more suitable.

All the while, her mind spins through the possibilities. Madara said their father asked for her. That he wanted to speak to her. What could it all be about?

And a totally unexpected visit by the Nara and Yamanaka heads! A potential alliance with three clans! Did that one act of kindness from months ago cause this? Most likely.

Madara also mentioned they might be in need of help. Perhaps they needed assistance in healing something the Nara medicines cannot fix? That’s a big possibility.

Once she’s done with her preparations, she almost flies to the door and slides it open with a bang.

“Sage!” Madara starts in surprise then looks her up and down with a small smirk. “That's a new record fast. You’re that excited to see your little act from months ago come to fruition huh?”

“And you’re not?” she asks while raising a brow in challenge.

“Of course I am. But little sister, let’s not get too carried away,” Madara warns her seriously while gently taking her hand and putting it on the crook of his arm, “The seed you planted might not actually bear the fruit you really wanted.”

Immediately her mood shifts to utter sobriety. Madara is right. All fruit trees don’t produce perfect fruits. Some fruits remain stunted and small, some develop with defect or rot in them, some are deformed, some don’t quite taste as they are expected to.

And she, Hinata, formerly of the House of Hyuuga and now of the House of Uchiha—she knows this most of all. She has always experienced mixed results for her choices and actions, intentional or not, good and worse. There’s always a consequence and a price to pay in the long run.

Three potential allies to the Uchiha Clan mean three potential enemies to the Senju. What if the one act she meant as a kindness somehow makes things worse? What if it escalates the war between their clan and Hashirama’s even more? What if more people die?

Curling her hands into fists and schooling her expression to one of solemnity, she nods her head at Madara in agreement. “You’re right, Nii-san. Best be careful and not expect too much too soon.”


	19. Guests and Good Tidings

She doesn’t get to meet their three unexpected guests face to face.

As heirs to the Uchiha, she and her brothers are placed in a secluded room for their protection whilst the negotiations between the three and her father and some of their clan elders are ongoing.

But she does get to see them using her byakugan. With her long range sight, she is tasked to observe the proceedings and narrate them to her siblings.

Though she already has an inkling of what the representatives of the three clans will look like physically, her breath still hitches when she first sets eyes on them.

The Nara Clan Head, Lord Shikaru looks so much like Shikamaru and his father—all wiry, long limbs, intense dark brown eyes and long dark hair pulled up in a high, spiky ponytail. Lord Yamanaka Inori has short cropped hair but possesses Ino’s father’s facial features, including the same strong, well-defined jawline. Akimichi Hiroki, the representative of the absent Akimichi Head, looks like Chouji, the only difference being the light-blonde hair. Talk about ridiculously strong genes.

The three have indeed come to visit the Uchiha territory with an offer but it’s not an alliance proposal they bring with them. The Lords Nara and Yamanaka make it clear from the start that they don’t want their clans to get embroiled in the Uchiha-Senju feud.

What they present instead is a mutually beneficial armistice and trade agreement—with the terms of the proposal having the Nara brains written all over it.

Under the armistice deal, the three clans offer a formal cessation of hostilities with the Uchiha. No more fighting amongst the clan members. Any missions wherein the Uchiha are contracted by one party, the other three clans will turn down commissions from the opposing party/parties.

As for the trade agreement, the Akimichi offer a lucrative deal in the food trade, particularly on staple grains such as rice, wheat and maize while the Yamanaka Clan offer a good deal on fabrics and textiles.

All these they offer in exchange for the end of bloodshed among the clan members when out on the field during missions and for them to be granted access to Uchiha medicines and healing services.

To her exasperation, her father and their clan elders express discontent with the terms of the proposal. They tell their guests that while the Yamanaka offer is tempting, the Akimichi one isn’t that much, considering they have farms surrounding the Uchiha territory and they have a steadily increasing food production due to the greenhouses and the food gardens.

According to her father, their clan’s medicines and healing services are worth more than what the other three clans are offering in return. An Uchiha elder also insultingly points out the lack of significant contribution from the Nara side.

While Lord Yamanaka shows a bit of upset, the Lord Nara doesn’t show any outward reaction for the slight. Neither does he show concern for the active sharingan eyes her clansmen have on him. He continues to show a façade of nonchalance then casually mentions not wanting to go for a full alliance with the Senju.

The following exchange after his implied threat is long and fraught with tension and subtle insults and intimidation—mostly from the participating members of her clan who have their sharingan activated. They go on and on about the details and terms and conditions of the trade deal.

In the end, after much deliberation with the elders, her father clenches his jaw and accepts the offer with terms of his own. Terms like the Uchiha reserves the right to set the prices on products and services rendered. That if someone from the other three clans requires healing or medical help of any kind, they will have to enter the Uchiha territory. And that the healing techniques practiced by the Uchiha healers will not be taught to outsiders so any witnesses are prohibited from entering the medical wing during the procedures.

Cautious and not wanting to fall for any traps, both parties agree to schedule another date to finalize the contract—the two sides wanting to take some time to review everything first, especially the specifics involving the trade deal with the Akimichis and the Yamanakas.

But before the three visitors left, the one other important reason for their decision to seek an arrangement with the Uchiha Clan is finally brought to light.

The absent Akimichi Clan Head and two others from the Yamanaka Clan, it is revealed, are suffering due to a chakra illness of some kind—one they developed after an encounter with members of the Hyuuga Clan. The Nara medicines have not been successful in healing them and they need to be seen to by a more skilled healer.

The rescue and healing assistance she freely gave the two children months ago has been noted for its advanced level and it seems the Nara Clan has gathered enough intel to know that the Uchiha healers may be of help.

* * *

“Shameless, the lot of them. Especially that bastard Nara,” their father griped once more, causing Madara to turn his head to his little sister and surreptitiously roll his eyes. When he saw her hold back a smile, he smirked a little before taking on a serious expression once more.

It’s been hours since their unexpected guests left the Uchiha territory and still, their father continued to grumble. In his words, _The Akimichi-Nara-Yamanaka clans are good-for-nothing cowards_ and _We are Uchiha, We are strong._

The way Madara saw it, their father was only complaining because the Nara Head was not cowed by his sharingan and even had the balls to issue a subtle threat about allying with the Senju.

“Hinata, let the others see to the patients first. Don’t intervene unless necessary. And make sure that if you’ll need to step in, those bastards are unconscious. They cannot know of your eyes. Understood?” their father asked with a dark scowl.

“Of course father. That goes without saying,” his little sister said in agreement while nodding her head.

“This was their goal from the start,” their father continued his tirade. “To have our healers save the sick and possibly dying Akimichi and those damned Yamanakas. The armistice and trade offers were nothing but pretext. Take heed of my words—if those bastards aren’t healed and they die, their clans will surely back out of the deal.”

“Maybe so but...let’s give them the benefit of the doubt first, Father,” his sister calmly remarked. “You must admit this is a good opportunity. With this, not only do we gain favorable trade deals, the danger and the casualty rate of Uchihas going out on missions would also decline, even if by some small degree.”

Their father scoffed. “Tch. It doesn’t take away the fact that their clans are made up of spineless cravens who want to take the safe path and refuse to stand with us on the field of battle against the Senju.”

“Well…they’re not Uchiha,” Madara pointed out with a faint smirk.

In all honesty, though he also thought the trade offers weren’t really that remarkable, he was nonetheless impressed with what their guests did—that they took the initiative to make peace with the Uchiha.

The fact that the armistice will put a stop to more violence and killing between the four clans was more than enough to convince him of its significance. It’s a rather big and daring step and if it worked, then it would be enough proof that peace was possible if all the clans would just try to cooperate with each other. But he can’t help but be concerned of other consequences.

“What do you really think of all this Hina?” He asked his sister in a low voice once they’re out of their father’s sight and hearing. “Even though this change helps our clan, I can’t help but worry that it might just make things worse with the Senju.”

“It’s not going to change anything with the Senju that much, I believe,” his sister responded just as softly.

“Why not? You don’t think Hashirama’s father will not take this as an offense? As another deliberate act of war?” he asked with a frown.

“That it is only an armistice and a trade deal should be enough to make the Senjus pause and think twice. They wouldn’t want to give the three clans a reason to fully ally with the Uchiha.”

Madara kept silent for a moment before nodding his head, seeing the sense in his sister’s response. “I wish we had summons of some kind,” he said after a while.

Hinata looked at him with a puzzled look on her face. “Summons?”

Madara shrugged his shoulders. “So we could have a way of secretly communicating and explaining things to the idiot. It would be pretty bad if he came up with the wrong conclusions when word reached him,” he explained while thinking of their pact with the Senju heir.

“A summon would indeed be beneficial,” his sister agreed with a nod. “But even without it, I trust Hashirama to have an open-mind and be understanding.”

“You really trust the idiot that much?” the older boy asked with a smirk. It amused and puzzled him a bit how his little sister could be so trusting of the moody Senju heir. He also liked Hashirama and trusted him too but with Hinata…

His sister sometimes spoke in ways that made him wonder if her strange eyes allowed her to see the future.

“Yes. It’s his character, I think. He has a…a sincerity which I believe is innate. I’m sure you felt and saw it to, Nii-san.”

“Yes,” Madara sighed while remembering the time they spent together with the Senju heir. Quietly, he hoped Hashirama remained true, if only for Hinata’s sake. He hoped that no matter how things turned complicated in the months and years to come, they’ll all be able to hold on and one day achieve their dream of peace.

* * *

After merely a day, the Lord Nara returns with the three patients, along with some escorts. Among them was the Nara child she helped those months ago.

“It’s you,” the Nara child says in greeting when he sees her in the medical wing while they helped the patients in.

The moment the boy says the words, the Lord Nara also gives her his rapt attention. Seeing them standing so close together, she can already surmise that they are closely related—perhaps father and son even.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Nara-san. And nice to see you doing well,” she greets the boy with a smile. Then she gives the Clan Head a formal bow, “Nara-sama, be welcome once more to Uchiha territory.”

The Nara Head gives her a nod and with his dark gaze pinned on her, he asks the boy, “Is this her? The one who helped you and healed Akio?”

“Yes, father,” the Nara boy answers without hesitation, his intense brown eyes on her.

The Lord Shikaru’s face and eyes soften a little and, his lips curling a bit, he asks her, “May I have your name, little lady?”

Before she can respond, she feels her father’s warm chakra approach from behind her then she feels his large hands on hers shoulders. “This is my daughter Hinata,” he answers the Nara Head’s question.

Lord Nara’s eyebrows raise and she sees a bit of surprise flicker on his face. “I didn’t know you have a daughter, Lord Uchiha.”

“Hn. Now you do,” her father says with his tone flat and the feel of his chakra forbidding.

The unfriendly atmosphere seems to have no effect on the Nara Clan Head. He merely looks at her with a contemplative look in his eyes. “I had thought the Uchiha Main Family was only capable of producing sons. How long has it been that a daughter was last born to the Head Family eh? Three generations?”

“Your point Nara?” her father asks.

“Nothing. Nothing really Tajima-sama. I am merely thinking out loud,” he tells her father with a casual shrug before returning his gaze to her. “But I guess, I should be grateful you were born a girl hm?”

The next moment, he gives her a formal bow and says, “I must thank you, Lady Hinata, for saving my son and his friend. My clan and I owe you a great debt. Ask anything and I shall do my best to see it fulfilled. So long as it’s within reason, of course.”

Not expecting the words, she shakes her head a bit. “Please Nara-sama, there’s no debt you need to pay. I helped your son and his friend because I could and I wanted to. Because it’s what I thought was right. Not because I expected to be repaid. Truly.”

“Because you could and because you wanted to?” he asks as he studies her face with sharp eyes.

Feeling a bit uneasy with the penetrating look, she nods her head and clears her throat before giving her explanation, “They’re just children fighting against three shinobi far older than they were. I thought it was only fair to…help them out a bit.”

She hears her father let out a derisive snort at her answer while amusement flickers on the Nara Leader’s face before he lets out a soft chuckle. “Lady Hinata, I’ll be forever grateful for what you’ve done for my son but please, do be careful and try not to make a habit of stepping in fights. You look like a bright, young girl and it would be such a waste to lose someone with your skills in healing—especially now that our clans are on the brink of securing a peace agreement.”

With nothing significant to say in response, she simply nods her head a bit awkwardly. “Thank you Nara-sama. I’ll remember your kind words.”

* * *

As was previously agreed, none from the three allied clans are allowed in the medical bay once the healing procedure starts.

With just one glance with her byakugan, she sees right away that the reason for the deteriorating illness for all three are damaged chakra pathway systems. Whoever Hyuuga they fought has used the Gentle First and has inserted harmful chakra to their bodies—enough to cause considerable damage even to their vital organs.

Just as her father wanted, she lets the older healers try to attend to the patients first but without the ocular ability to see the root of the problem and the precise chakra control required to address it properly, they prove unable to help. In the end, it falls on her to heal them.

With the careful procedure and required focus and precision to heal the needle-sized tenketsu points, chakra network reconstruction is very hard work. Only the byakugan, her advanced chakra control, familiarity with the Gentle Fist and lifetimes of experiences of healing herself after spars make it possible to successfully repair their broken chakra points and reconnect their severed pathways.

She first drains the harmful chakra inside their bodies using a smaller version of the twin lion fists. After that, she carefully reverses the effects of the Gentle Fist by reopening all the blocked tenketsu points. Then she painstakingly heals the coils that are damaged before doing what she can to heal the internal organs.

It takes her two days and considerable amounts of chakra to heal all of them but heal them she does—though full recovery will take at least a month. After the successful healing of the three, the subsequent negotiations go on more smoothly and the peace agreement and trade deals are signed within a fortnight.

* * *

A/N:

**I find it totally unbelievable and ridiculous that there are no highly skilled Hyuuga medical-ninjas in the Naruto universe.**

There I said it.

And here’s the reason why: 

The Hyuugas use the Gentle Fist—a style which inflicts internal damage by surgically injecting their own chakra to their opponent’s chakra pathway system, causing damage to surrounding organs due to their proximity to the chakra circulatory system. They do even more damage by targeting the tenketsu (the size of which is compared to the tip of a needle), thereby enhancing the level of destruction they can cause to their opponent’s body.

At first, it’s said the Hyuugas have the byakugan readily available since birth. Then this was changed in Boruto and now they must go through hard training to be able to activate it. Regardless which statement is true, the Hyuugas have to go through some pretty intense training to achieve mastery of the Gentle Fist as it requires ridiculous levels of precision to be truly effective.

Now, unless they have a hidden dungeon somewhere filled with people they can use to their hearts’ content as live test subjects, the Hyuugas hone their technique by sparring with one another. As shown by Neji, Hinata and Hanabi, they start training at an early age. The way their technique works, they have to spar with a live opponent with a chakra network and basically practice on them like a human pincushion to become masters of it.

And you know what that means? That means every time they spar, they risk dealing almost the same amount of damage to their clansmen that they do to their actual enemies. The question is: Who reverses/heals the damage they cause on one another after sparring or training? Who healed ancient Hyuugas when they sparred with one another and caused the same damage?

With their fighting style and the added benefit of their byakugan being able to see the chakra network, the internal organs and even the bones, there _must_ be Hyuugas who practice high levels of medical jutsus, especially in reconstructing chakra pathways and healing internal damage, otherwise, the Hyuuga Clan would have discarded the Gentle Fist Technique a long time ago for the damage it can also cause their own members during training.

Just saying...


	20. Chance Reunion

* * *

Almost down to his knees on the ground, with the two tomoes of his sharingan spinning to keep track of his opponent, Tatsuya twisted his body and just narrowly dodged his twin sister’s chakra-coated fingers. He swiftly jumped back to widen the gap between them and weaved the hand signs for a katon jutsu before opening his mouth and letting out a stream of flames.

Not a moment later, his fire was met with a deluge of water and a thick steam enveloped the area, making visibility difficult. He cursed, knowing instantly that he was in even greater danger. His twin has the byakugan—those freaking eyes could see through practically _everything_.

Straining his ears and eyes even more for any sign of movement, he pumped chakra down his legs to escape the haze when not a moment later, he felt a chakra-imbued foot hit his stomach, throwing him a good distance away from where he initially was.

“Ahhh…shit! Time out Hina!” he groaned as he panted for air to replace the one knocked out of him.

Lying on the ground with his eyes closed and a hand on his aching stomach, he felt his twin approach and kneel at his side. “Let me see,” she said softly before lifting his shirt.

He breathed a sigh of relief when he next felt her cold palms press on his skin, applying healing chakra to ease the pain in his belly. 

“Tatsu, the next time you get caught up in a situation where visibility is low and you think you won’t be able to escape in time, best create mud walls. They’re good for instant defense and will help limit the area and attack options of your enemies.”

Opening his eyes and tugging on a lock of her hair, he grumbled, “Tch! That might work for others but even if I had done that earlier, you’d still have beaten me. You got those freaky all-seeing byakugan and you’re just damned fast for my sharingan to keep track of.”

“Now, don’t sell yourself short,” she said while patting his leg. “That was a good spar, brother. Your speed, as well as your reaction time, has improved a lot. Great work.”

As always, his twin was sincere with her words of praise and encouragement but Tatsuya could not help but smile wryly. “Perhaps you could invent some kind of a magic pill that would help me improve even further?”

“If ever I create a magic pill, know you’ll be the first I’ll share it with. Twin privileges,” she answered, lips curled up into a smile and her lavender eyes bright.

“Hn. Good. I will hold you to that,” he grinned then closed his eyes once more and relaxed under her healing hands.

Twins. He honestly no longer thought of Hinata as his twin these days. She’s just so…so far from where he stood.

Her eyes could see farther, could let her move and travel in speeds none other in their clan could match. She had the best chakra control out of all of them. Their Father even admitted she was better at it than him. She could create and master techniques in a matter of days. She’s now created jutsus using four different elements—fire, lightning, wind and water. She’s constantly improving. The past two years especially, she has widened the gap by several miles that even their older brothers are now playing catch up.

She’s their best healer. Her ideas made huge contributions, especially in terms of the health and well-being of their people and the wealth of the clan. It’s also because of her that they now have a peace and trade agreements with three other clans with more expressing interest in trading with the Uchiha.

And she’s only ten! Just like him! He’s the older twin and he’s living in her shadow—one so large and long he’s now convinced he’ll never escape from it.

A year or so ago, he’d been a brat and felt so jealous and even came to a point he wanted to hate her. But he just couldn’t do it in the end. His twin’s so hard to hate—he’d be the worst scum in the world if he gave into his ill-feelings. She’s just so kind and good and very supportive of him too. So he decided to just accept it, be proud of her and do his own best, especially since she was also doing her best to help him.

“Ne Hina, would you teach me your Chidori technique?” he asked earnestly once he was fully healed and his sister’s palms left his belly. The lightning jutsu his twin created looked like it would be a powerful technique once mastered. He’s very interested in learning it even though lightning wasn’t his main element.

“Sure,” his sister answered right away. Then, with a more serious tone, she continued, ”With the sharingan, it’ll be a good technique to learn. I must warn you though, because it’s not your major element, it might take a while. You’ll need to work hard and have patience.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “When can we start?”

“I have that delivery mission in Tanzaku-gai tomorrow. How about the day after?”

“Hn. I hear there are only a few days left before their town festival. There’s going to be lots of nice things in their market stalls. Make sure to buy something for me Hina.”

“Hm. I’ll do my best,” his twin said with a smile. “Now, are you up for another round?”

Tatsuya got up and looked at her with a smirk. “You’re on. Be warned twin sister, I’ll do my best to repay that nasty kick of yours. Believe it.”

* * *

“There you go. Fifty thousand ryo. Not bad right? Now you have more money to spend on your many weird experiments,” Hashirama smiled smugly while handing over half of his winnings to his younger brother.

They’re currently in the booming town of Tanzaku-gai, having just completed an escort mission. Tobirama, ever the stickler for rules, had wanted to go home earlier. But with their festival approaching, there were so many new things to see! And there are so many new buildings that boasted of good food and a few that advertised gambling games. So he did his best to wheedle and beg until his brother gave in.

And now, they’re inside a private booth in one of the best diners, having a scrumptious meal after he won in the games he participated in.

“You may have won and the money may be useful but I still say gambling is a vice you shouldn’t indulge else it’ll turn into an irredeemable habit,” Tobirama declared with a stern expression on his face—an expression he copied from their father.

He gasped and clutched at his chest, “You wound me brother. That you would think I’d let gambling become an uncontrollable habit. Have you so little faith in me?”

“I’m just saying the truth, Anija. And with you being hardheaded and irresponsible at times, gambling turning into a bad habit is within the realm of possibility.”

“Now Tobira, don’t be like that. I say gambling is only a bad habit when you’re losing money over it and don’t know when to stop,” he told his brother seriously. Then with a triumphant smile, he continued, “But I was born under a lucky star, brother. I was born to win. I just proved it, didn’t I? So you shouldn’t worry so much.”

His brother only gave him another glare and picked up his cup of tea without another word.

He laughed. “Such a wet blanket you are Tobi. You need to relax more or you’ll grow wrinkles early. With your white hair, you’ll look like an old man by the time you turn twenty or thirty.”

“Do I look like I—“

When his brother stiffened on his seat and stopped talking suddenly, Hashirama frowned. “What is it? What’s wrong?” 

“Uchiha,” his brother bit out, his eyes closing as he focused on sensing more.

“What?! How far? How many? Can you recognize them?” he asked worriedly but snapped his mouth shut when his brother held up a finger as a sign for him to stop talking.

“It’s that little girl you’ve befriended two years ago. She’s alone and she just entered the town’s perimeter,” his younger brother stated coldly upon opening his eyes.

“Hina-hime,” Hashirama breathed out softly. “Are you sure, Tobi?”

Even though he asked, the Senju heir already knew his little brother’s information was accurate. After that unforgettable episode with Madara and little Hinata, upon learning that there’s another who could rival his sensory skill, Tobirama had trained like mad to be better than ever—to be the best.

“Of course I am sure,” Tobirama snapped heatedly. “I’ve memorized her chakra that time when I spied on you. Fire and lightning, those are her elemental natures. It’s stronger now with lightning more prominent.”

When he saw his brother’s hand clenched into a fist on top of the table, Hashirama reached out and gripped it with his own. “Stop, Tobirama. Don’t even think about confronting or attacking her.”

“Why not? Because she’s a girl? In case you’ve forgotten Anija, she’s heiress to the Uchiha. Not only that, she’s reportedly the prodigious healer who’s contributed a lot in her clan securing more and more trade with other clans.”

“Because we owe her, brother,” Hashirama retorted harshly while squeezing his brother’s fist with enough force to let him know he was serious.

“What? What are you talking about?” Tobirama asked with his brows furrowed. “How do we owe her?”

Sighing, Hashirama released the fist he was holding. “Remember that time with Itama? When he was hunted by some Uchiha and almost got killed but was saved and practically planted right in front of us? That stranger who swiftly appeared and disappeared that you weren’t even able to sense their chakra?”

When his brother remained deathly still, he continued. “It was Hina-hime. It was she who saved our little brother.”

As he expected, surprise and skepticism both rippled across his brother’s face. “What?! How was that possible? How did you know that?”

“I learned of it from her that last time we met. She was using a henge,” he answered with a small smile, feeling sad at the thought of the two Uchiha friends he hasn’t met for two years now. “She…knew I was a Senju from the start because of that event with Itama. How she knew I’m the heir, I don’t know. We never really had the chance to talk that much about it in the end.”

“But you said...I remember you told Father that they didn’t know you’re a Senju. I don’t understand. If she knew you’re a Senju, then why did she not inform her brother and…” his little brother trailed off with confusion written clear on his face.

Hashirama laughed a little then shrugged his shoulders. “The past two years, I kept thinking of those times I spent with her and her brother over and over again. I’ve come to realize that Madara was a normal boy, just like you and I. But Hina-hime…I first thought she was just a normal little girl. But over the course of our interactions and especially that last time…I now say that she’s different—a truly unique person. And the more I try to understand everything that happened, the more it feels like a…a mysterious dream, you know?”

“You lied. You lied about everything that happened with them,” his brother accused, his face hard as granite. “Tell me everything now and don’t lie,” he demanded.

Hashirama remained quiet for a while and simply stared at his brother, trying to read his face. He may be the most powerful of their clan with his mokuton but Tobirama was the undisputed genius. His brother was the most intelligent of them all and, without a doubt, he’ll play a large role when the time for him to lead the clan came.

“You don’t approve of Father’s way of thinking, do you? You hate this senseless war with the Uchiha and with the other clans as much as I do,” he stated with a sigh after a while.

“You know very well what my sentiments are when it comes to this endless conflict. Start talking for real, no more digression,” his brother said with a stony face.

“Can I trust you Tobi? Can you keep whatever I tell you now a secret?” Hashirama asked while gravely looking his sibling in the eye. “Will you swear not to tell Father or anyone else?”

He watched patiently as indecision flickered across Tobirama’s face. before he clenched his jaws and met his gaze with a grim but truthful expression. “Fine. I swear it.”

Hashirama gave his brother a relieved and thankful smile. After making sure their privacy was secure, he then told his brother the truth. He quietly recounted the tale of how he met Madara first then the little Hinata later. How the times they were together were spent with training and sparring, the topics they talked about, everything he could remember.

“I didn’t lie when I said that I didn’t know they were Uchihas. Madara and I truly didn’t know. Only little Hina-hime did,” he informed his brother softly. “Madara was so hurt and angry, you know? When he asked why she kept the secret to herself, she said…she said that she wanted her brother and I to become friends. She wanted us to hear each other’s hopes and dreams and plans for the future. For us to realize that, Uchiha or Senju, we’re not so different from each other.”

He watched as his brother’s stony face turned soft just a little bit before asking, “And then?”

“We made a pact brother,” he confessed softly. “When Madara and I assume leadership of our clans, we’ll put an end to this pointless war and convince the other clans to join us. Together, we will build a village we can all call home. Hina-hime insisted we name it Konoha.”

For a while, there was only silence until Tobirama let out a long exhale. “It’s…it’s not a bad plan. But it will take years and anything might happen before that time comes. You trust them to keep their word? What if her brother dies? What if…”

At the words, Hashirama sobered up. “I…don’t think about the what-ifs Tobirama. I cannot,” he said with a heavy feeling in his chest. The thought of Madara and Hinata dying…The thought of their dream of peace never coming to fruition…He shook his head to get rid of the dark thoughts. “All I can do is to have faith—to believe that just like me, they’re doing their best to grow strong and survive so we can one day fulfill the pact we made.”

“Do you want to meet her?” his brother suddenly asked.

“Brother…you’ll let me see her?” he asked with hopeful eyes and a small grin making its way on his mouth. “Truly?”

“Tch. Don’t get too excited. I’m offering not for your sake but because I want to meet this little girl who’s convinced you to lie to Father and go along with this…this insane plan. That’s all.”

Seeing the grumpy look on his younger brother’s face, Hashirama sniggered then teased. “Liar! Admit it, you just want to meet the person who could possibly rival your sensory skills.”

“Shut up Anija. Or I’ll tell Father.”

“No Tobi, you can’t. You promised, remember? If you do, I’ll never forgive you. I’ll destroy all your experiments and burn all your books and scrolls and when I become head, I’ll…I’ll make sure to marry you off to the most annoying girl I can find.”

“Whatever. Are you done with your stupid threats? The Uchiha girl is just a few blocks away from here, close to the market stalls.”

“Hmmm. With her eyes, I’m quite certain she’s seen us already. I wonder why…” Hashirama trailed off.

Hinata has a byakugan somehow—those veins he saw on her face and the ease with which she was able to catch his sibling when he spied on them were evidences of that. She’s also smart and cautious so he couldn’t help but wonder why she’s in no hurry to leave Tanzaku-gai yet. Or perhaps she’s just that confident with her skills to get away? It’s a possibility. After all, she’d been able to appear and disappear like a ghost before their very eyes once.

Standing up quickly, he told his brother, “Stay here Tobi. I’ll go meet with her and invite her to join us.”

“What? Why can’t I just—“

“Hina-hime’s a quick one, brother. She might just disappear if she sees you,” he said, cutting off his sibling’s protest. Then raising a finger, he added, “And it’ll be Hina-hime’s decision whether to meet you or not. I’m not going to force her. So, you’ll have stay put.”

With that, he turned around and went for the door, feeling a little giddy at the prospect of seeing one of his friends again and possibly introducing her to his younger brother.

* * *

“Hello, Hashirama-sama,” Hinata turns and greets the grinning Senju heir with a bow as soon as he pulls to a stop beside her.

She’s not surprised to see him. She has seen the Senju brothers inside one of the more good-looking diners from kilometers away before she entered Tanzaku-gai.

Knowing of Tobirama’s sensory talents, she’s known there’s a high probability of him feeling her presence amidst the crowd. With her speed, she has shrugged her shoulders and entered the town anyway and left the decision to the brothers to either ignore her or confront her.

“Hina!” the future Hokage laughs before quickly moving forward and clasping her shoulders with his large, warm hands. “Kami! It really is you! It’s so nice to see you. It’s been so long! How are you? You’re still so cute! How’s Madara? Is he doing well? Is he training hard? Has he grown stronger?”

Feeling her amusement well up at his enthusiasm and many questions, she laughs a little. “It’s nice to see you too. Nii-san and I are both doing well. How about you?”

The Shodaime she knew from lifetimes ago was a tall man, taller than even Naruto and Sasuke.

Like Madara, Hashirama has grown a lot in the last two years she hasn’t seen him. At fifteen now, he’s a giant compared to her diminutive height. With her head barely reaching his chest, she has to stretch her neck and really look up to meet his eyes.

There are also other changes to his appearance. He no longer looks like Lee. He has grown his hair and it now reaches his waist. His skin has become even more tanned and his face has matured. He’s quite handsome now. But his eyes, she notices, are still the same. They have the same honesty, the same genuineness she’s seen from years ago.

“Oh I’m all good. What’re you doing here? Mission?” Then his brows furrow, “By the way, why are you alone? Shouldn’t you be in a team or at least be with a partner?”

“Yes. I just finished a delivery mission. I work better alone and speedy missions are my specialty,” she informs him with a shrug. “How about you?”

He continues to look at her with a frown for a moment before responding, “Aa. I’m here with my brother, Tobirama. You remember him?”

“Of course. How can I not?” she asks with a knowing look in her eyes.

“Ah, right,” he laughs a little awkwardly. Then his expression turns a little more serious and with a quiet voice asks, “Will you join us for a meal, Hina-hime? I’d like to introduce you to my little brother.”

Turning solemn herself, she meets his gaze. “Does he know?”

“Yes,” he answers sheepishly. “I told him. Just minutes before actually. He felt your presence and we talked. He’s my brother Hina and he’s really smart. He’s a genius. I’ll need his help in the future. We’ll all need his help, I think.”

She nods her head in understanding. It’s as she’s expected. It’s actually so much better that Senju Tobirama knows of their agreement. This way, the white-haired boy won’t continue holding on to negative thoughts about all the Uchiha, especially for Madara.

And Hashirama is right—more than he knows. As in the past, the younger Senju will certainly play a large role in the future. Having his trust and support now can only be beneficial.

“It’s fine Hashirama-sama. You don’t have to explain. I’m sure you did what you think is necessary. I would love to meet your brother,” she assures him with a gentle pat on his arm.

His wide, bright smile returns and he throws a large, heavy arm on her shoulder. “Great! Now come on! And stop calling me Hashirama-sama. It’s so stuffy. I told you before, you can just call me Hashi or Nii-san you know,” he says before leading her to the same diner where Senju Tobirama awaits them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The pic above is of Hinata and her twin Tatsuya.  
> The image for Tatsuya's character isn't mine--just something I found through Google and edited.  
> I'd like to give the credit to whoever created him but I can't find their name. :)


	21. The Genius Brother, Tobirama

Senju Tobirama has a dark scowl painted on his face when she finally gets to meet him in person. She’s not surprised by it. Even before, the man had a reputation for being austere, bordering on harsh. She’s not intimated either. She’s already experienced her fair share of dealing with men far colder, harsher and leagues dangerous than he after all.

She settles for quietly observing him while waiting for Hashirama to do the proper introductions.

The white-haired Senju has grown a lot in the last two years. He’s not as tall as Hashirama but certainly taller than her oldest brother. A contrast to the older Senju brother, Tobirama has a far more mature look and dignified demeanor due to his stern face and piercing red eyes.

“Brother, meet Hinata-hime,” Hashirama says with a warning look thrown his brother’s direction before turning to her with a smile. “Hina-hime, this is my younger brother Tobirama.”

Then, bending over with his mouth close to her ears, he whispers, “Don’t mind the look on his face. He was born a grump.”

“I can hear you Anija,” Tobirama huffs.

“Good! I intended for you to,” Hashirama retorts with an unrepentant grin. “Lighten up Tobi! We’ve got a princess joining us. You don’t want to frighten her, do you?”

“Tch. Don’t speak as if I’m the one without proper manners, idiot,” the younger Senju replies and glowers even more, this time, at his older brother.

Biting back her own smile at their banter, she bows in respect and greets the white-haired youth, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, Tobirama-sama.”

He stops glaring at his brother and looks at her with a more neutral expression. “Likewise,” he mutters quietly with a simple nod of his own.

“Likewise. What a lukewarm greeting brother. And you say you have manners,” Hashirama comments with a snicker before perking up and putting his hand on her back. “Alright! Now that that’s out of the way, come take a seat Hina,” he says before guiding and helping her sit on a _zabuton_ opposite his brother then seating himself at her side.

With amusement, she notices that their table is laden with food too much for even two voracious, growing young men. There’s the staple rice and tea, an assortment of sushi, yakitori, tempura and grilled meat and fish, and mushroom mixed soup.

“Maa, we’ve ordered pretty much all the specials the establishment has to offer but if there’s something in particular you want to eat, just let me know. It’s my treat,” Hashirama says while handing her a pair of chopsticks and arranging the dishes and platters of food closer to her side of the table.

“Thank you Hashirama-sama. This is fine. Everything looks good enough to me,” she tells him honestly before murmuring _Itadakimasu_.

* * *

It was absolutely ridiculous but the moment he saw the two enter their private booth earlier—Hashirama with an arm thrown on the Uchiha heiress’ shoulder, looking down at her and grinning with fondness evident in his eyes and the younger girl wearing a small, serene smile while talking softly and looking up—Tobirama’s normally sharp and orderly mind somehow broke and was suddenly bombarded with the memory of a particularly dramatic but tasteless theater performance he watched a year ago in the Capital while serving as a guard for an irritating, pompous noble.

The play had been about a shinobi and a kunoichi from two warring clans who accidentally became allies during a particularly dangerous mission. The two eventually became lovers and continued to meet clandestinely whenever they could. When forcibly arranged to marry others, the two plotted to escape their families only for their romance to end in tragedy because of their stupidity.

He had scowled, closed his eyes and determinedly gotten rid of the stupid recollection. The scowl was still on his face when his brother and their guest reached their table but, strangely, instead of cowering or showing unease like many normally would in his presence, the girl appeared unperturbed by his facial expression.

No, if anything, her strikingly unique eyes only showed amusement. After his brother made the necessary introductions, she had merely smiled and gave him a polite but flawless bow in greeting.

His brother was right. What a strange but interesting girl indeed.

Two years ago, when he tracked his brother and spied on them from a distance, he had easily dismissed Uchiha Hinata as just a forgettable little girl with dark hair and pale skin and had instead focused on her brother who possessed great chakra and skills that rivaled Hashirama’s during their spars. He had to admit now that he made a mistake.

Among many shinobi clans, especially for those hailing from certain bloodlines, careful inbreeding was a normal, acceptable occurrence—sometimes even a necessity—to not only survive but also thrive. The practice has been repeated throughout the centuries to ensure that any offspring would have a higher probability of inheriting special blood limits. Because of this, certain qualities were also passed on and remained, to this day, as distinct markers for clan members.

Of the known shinobi clans, the Uchiha and the Hyuuga were among the top when it came to inbreeding. They’re famous not only for their highly coveted doujutsu and might in battle but also for their beauty, especially those of the main houses and the ones closely related to them. 

The girl in front of him was a prime example.

Although dressed in a nondescript dark blue kimono with short sleeves and plain, purple obi—something that was most likely deliberately done so she could walk amongst civilians unbothered—the girl still manage to look awfully pretty.

Still very young and on the short side still, she had a waist-length dark hair that showed undertones of navy blue every time she moved her head. Clean and healthy white skin with hues of porcelain and ivory. A heart-shaped face, perfectly shaped brows, pink pouty mouth and a button nose.

But it’s her eyes that stood out over the rest and separated her from the rest of her clan. 

Instead of the typical dark gray or black her clan was known for, the Uchiha Princess possessed lavender orbs which showed flecks of silver and gray depending on the light. With only faint and enlarged irides and no discernible pupils, her orbs looked haunting one moment, penetrating the next, but calmly discerning most of the time.

They were such unique eyes and with those strange patterns he saw in the past seared in his memory, they’re ones he’ll most likely never forget. And though not one for bets, he’s quite certain that once she’s matured, with her face and unforgettable eyes, Uchiha Hinata will grow to be a great beauty many foolish men would willingly wage foolish wars for.

But not him, of course. No—his interest was purely from an intellectual point of view.

The sight of her lavender orbs curiously reminded him of what he knew about the byakugan. He could not help wonder just how close the sharingan was to the all-seeing white eyes of the Hyuuga. Or did the strange patterns he caught a quick glimpse of those years ago somehow play a role?

He’s very curious and dearly wanted to learn more but knew asking such a personal question about their jealously guarded eyes would most likely not endear nor garner him any response from the Uchiha Princess.

Having nothing important to really talk about, Tobirama decided to simply observe and quietly listen while the two interacted.

Hashirama, exuberant and chatty as ever, mostly dominated the conversation but the young girl easily kept pace with him despite her soft voice and seemingly reserved nature.

They talked about different topics. Like the food in front of them and what their favorite dishes were before seamlessly shifting to cooking then gardening and growing fruits and vegetables. Then they spoke about growing herbs and making medicines and ointments and healing and how knowledge of it should not be monopolized but should be shared to help others.

They had so many things in common, be it likes and dislikes and hobbies and beliefs and opinions. They spoke and connected so easily that it felt like witnessing, if not two kindred souls, then two really good old friends.

It was something Tobirama never expected, especially from two people just…so different in so many ways. Different genders, different clans, different upbringing, different ages. It was weird.

“You said you’re looking for things you could buy for your brothers didn’t you? We could go around and look at the different stalls after here. I’ve won some money so I’d like to see if there’s anything interesting I could buy for Itama and my cousin Touka too.”

“Won? You mean gambling?” the Uchiha heiress asked, her pretty face showing a faint frown for the first time.

“Yes!” his older brother answered with a triumphant grin. “A hundred thousand ryo Tobi and I split between us. Sweet isn’t it?”

“Hmmm. I hope you’re not making a habit of gambling Hashirama-sama,” the younger girl said with a disapproving look on her face. “It’s a vice that should not be indulged lest it become an addiction.”

“Not you too Hina-hime,” his older brother groaned, pouting like a child. “I already had the talk from Tobirama earlier.”

“Oh he did?” the girl asked then turned to Tobirama with a faint smile, “Good to know.”

“I’m not addicted, I swear it,” Hashirama asserted. “And I won, how can that be a bad thing?”

“For you and those who win, yes, it’s not bad,” the girl said with a nod before continuing in a grave voice, “But it’s terrible, and sometimes, devastating for the families and friends of those who don’t win. It’s also largely harmful to any society due to the myriad of problems it could lead to—poverty, domestic abuse and all sorts of crimes such as robbery and murder. Think about the children who go to sleep without food in their bellies because their fathers lost their money in gambling. How they might resort to thieving just to eat. Think of those who were robbed of their wealth and other possessions and others who were killed because some people are willing to commit crimes to support their vice.”

Tobirama smirked and watched in pleasure when his older brother slumped on the table gloomily.

If there’s something his impulsive and flaky brother was consistent in, it was in wanting to protect the innocent, helping those in need and making the world a better place. The words of the younger girl regarding his fondness for gambling, without a doubt, must’ve felt like a hard punch straight to his gut.

“Hina-hime, I get it. I get it,” Hashirama said, his voice and face miserable. “No more gambling, I promise.”

The girl only smiled and patted his brother’s arm gently. “You don’t have to promise me anything, you know. I just want you to remember this: As an heir and a clan leader someday, others will look to you. Your standards will be followed and mimicked by many. To the eyes and minds of the people around you, what you permit, you promote and what you allow, you encourage.”

“I understand. I’ll remember it,” Hashirama spoke softly. Then with a wry smile, he said, “I sure hope I’m not the only one receiving lectures such as this one Hina. Tell me Madara also gets lessons from you.”

“Occasionally. You met him. You know how stubborn Nii-san could be,” the girl said with a quiet laugh that made his older brother laugh too.

Calmly picking up his cup and taking a sip of the already tepid tea, Tobirama recalled the wayward memory that assaulted his brain earlier.

The tale of the two stupid and star-crossed lovers in the performance ended in tragedy but the one in front of him has the potential to be so much better. To be so much more.

Uchiha Hinata might still be very young and Hashirama might not have thought of it yet—but she’ll grow up. And when she does, he was quite certain his idiot brother might just lose his mind.

Not that it bothered Tobirama. No, he was actually looking forward to it. He only hoped that their Father wouldn’t do something stupid like forcing them in arranged marriages in the years to come.

His older brother deserved some happiness. He needed to be with someone who could understand his craziness, counterbalance his energy and help manage his impulses. And after all that he learned and witnessed, despite the girl coming from their clan’s most hated enemy, Tobirama quietly approved of Uchiha Hinata.

The two joining in matrimony would only be very beneficial for everyone. A marriage, after all, was the surest way to seal a new alliance—the age-old and common practice of brokering a more lasting peace.

* * *

After their time at the diner, they spent another hour visiting the many, different stalls and looked at the various goods the merchants and traders had to offer. They made several purchases with him offering to pay for the hime but to his disappointment, she refused every time.

Now their time has come to an end and feeling gloomy, Hashirama smiled sadly as he watched his younger friend busy herself with sealing away her purchases in a scroll.

“Are you sure you don’t want us to accompany you? We could go with you at least halfway to your home,” he offered.

“I’m sure,” she responded with a firm nod. “Don’t worry too much about me, Hashirama-sama. I can take care of myself.”

Hashirama sighed. “I know you can. I believe your Father wouldn’t let you go on missions if you weren’t capable. It’s just…Our world is very dangerous, Hina. Just a single misstep and it might cost you everything.”

“I know. Believe me, I do,” she said with a very somber look on her face which reminded him of how her younger brothers died, making him feel just…sadder.

“Your letter to Nii-san?” she asked with raised brow and an outstretched hand.

“Oh yes, here it is.” He handed her a scroll and watched as she went to have it sealed also. “Thank you, Hina-hime.”

“You’re welcome.”

When she finished and the scroll was put inside a pouch securely attached to her back, she stood up and smiled, “It was wonderful spending time with you both. But I must say my farewells now. My father and my twin brother, I’m sure, must already be waiting impatiently for my return.”

Taking the last few steps remaining between them, Hashirama embraced her before putting his hands on her small shoulders. “Say my greetings to your brother and be careful always, alright? I hope to see you soon.”

“Yes, I will. See you soon,” she said while giving his arms a gentle squeeze. Then she turned to his younger brother who stood quiet the entire time. “And you too Tobirama-sama. It was nice meeting you and I thank you for your understanding of the situation.”

His brother, ever the wet blanket, only gave a grunt and a nod.

With a heavy feeling, Hashirama watched as she took a few steps away from him, smiled once more and gave a parting wave. She turned around and with a flare of her chakra, she disappeared with the wind.

To his bewilderment, as soon as she was gone, his younger brother immediately crouched and put his finger on the ground.

“Tobirama?”

“She’s gone. I can’t sense her at all,” his younger brother answered after a while, his voice sounding impressed.

“Really?” he breathed out in surprise. “Not in your fifty kilometer sensory range?”

“Hn. And she did it without making any seals, without any lengthy preparation,” Tobirama replied with a thrilled expression on his normally stern face.

At the confirmation, Hashirama felt the heavy and constricting feeling in his chest ease. With that speed and her eyes, the little Uchiha Princess would be sure to reach her home quickly and without any issue.

“How remarkable indeed. You look so excited you’re about to salivate brother,” he commented with a snicker.

Tobirama scoffed. “Tch. Can’t you see? This is proof that space-time jutsus are possible. That teleportation is possible.”

“Mhm. Mhm.” Hashirama nodded then with a teasing grin asked, “And I guess, you’re going to start another secret competition with Hina-hime and spend the next weeks or months creating a space-time jutsu eh?”

Tobirama, despite his relatively composed and calm demeanor, could be truly competitive, especially if the situation posed a challenge to his intelligence and creativity. And now, given that the skill little Hinata exhibited involved something his brother was also greatly interested in, he won’t be surprised if his younger brother became obsessed with creating a space-time jutsu of his own.

“Shut up Anija. You spent two hours of our time with your Uchiha Princess. Let's not waste any more daylight and just go home,” his brother said with a scowl before turning around.

With a loud laugh, Hashirama quickly followed.


	22. New Facts and Toilet Bowls

“Seven Truth-Seeking orbs, not bad for only having one tenseigan eye,” Hamura says, his lips curled up into a small smile.

“Toneri had nine which he could split into smaller ones,” Hinata recounts while holding one orb in her hand as she floated in the air using the tenseigan mode she’s starting to work on controlling. “I also saw him infuse them with chakra and transformed them into different shapes like shields and even an elaborate cage.”

“That’s about right,” Hamura says nodding his head. “They’re malleable and you can indeed do those things but those are not the most valuable advantages those orbs provide. Truth-seeking orbs have more worth when used offensively. With the tenseigan and my chakra, you can use them to cause an explosion which I believe could be powerful enough to destroy the moon.”

Hinata swallows hard and tries her best to suppress her shivers at the words reminding her of the destruction the tenseigan is capable of.

“Are you talking about Silver Wheel Reincarnation Explosion?” she queries. “I’ve seen that one utilized as well already. I believe there’s a Rainbow version of it that’s supposed to be more devastating as well as some kind of massive sword which Toneri used to cut the moon in half.”

Hamura sighs wearily. “The Moon Branch really has gone too far. There might come a time when you’ll have to deal with them sooner rather than later, Hinata.”

With a serious look in her eyes, Hinata nods her head in understanding. “When that time comes, I’ll do my best to turn them away from the destructive path they’re treading,” she sincerely swears.

Naruto was able to turn Toneri away from his senseless mission of destroying the Earth and in the end, the lone Moon resident had been a help. She’ll have to do her best to change the course of all the existing descendants of Hamura living on the moon. Having more of them might be of help against more Ootsutsuki invasion in the future.

“Hm. You have my gratitude,” he says with a slight nod of his head. “Alright, let’s continue. The orb on your hand, focus on it and convert it into a black receiver. The process should not require much effort and should be instinctual. You can keep your eyes open or close while you shape it according to your will.”

Taking a deep breath, Hinata balances the orb in the palm of her open hand and wills it to turn into a rod while thinking of the ones Pein used to pin Naruto down lifetimes ago—the same ones she tried to destroy. With a smile, she sees that Hamura is right. The Truth-Seeking orb slowly lengthens until it becomes a stick in her hand.

“That’s...fast,” Hamura murmurs, a bit of surprise in his tone.

“It’s probably because I’ve already seen black receivers many times before—mostly from rinnegan users and my two...former husbands who were both granted Hagoromo-sama’s chakra. All I did was remember them.”

“I take it you also already know their many different uses?”

“I do,” Hinata answers with a simple nod.

“Good,” he says, a look of approval on his face. “It should be easier for you to wield it then.”

“About Zetsu,” she switches the topic with a grimace while remembering the sinister creature that has wrought so much destruction and grief to many “That vile creature hasn’t appeared yet but with my brother Madara having achieved his sharingan, I’m convinced it won’t be long before it makes its presence known. The black receivers, from what I know, can be used to pin it down. If not, then I can use Bansho Ten’in, the attractive force, to manipulate and pull him to me. But after the pull or the immobilization, with the tenseigan not having the Chibaku Tensei capability like the rinnegan, what other options do I have to seal it? Or can I perform the Chibaku Tensei alone since it’s technically a fuinjutsu?”

“You’ve thought of this a lot, I see,” Hamura smiles once more, his face displaying a pleased look. “To answer your question, yes, you can apply the fuinjutsu since you have Six Paths Yin and Yang access using my chakra. It will be at a smaller scale, though, compared to what my brother and I created to seal our mother away.”

“Wait…you said Six Paths Yin and Yang?” she asks, surprised at the information.

“I did,” he calmly replies while meeting her gaze with some amusement in his pale eyes.

Hinata’s lips twitch before turning into a full smile. “Well, that answers some of the questions I’ve been having for a while now.”

When Hamura wordlessly raises a brow in question, she explains. “The chakra you gave me…I always wondered what makes it permanent and why it constantly replenishes on its own, even from before. I knew it has something to do with sage chakra but didn’t really have confirmation that it’s Six Paths too. Does that mean that this chakra mode I’m on now is also the tenseigan’s version of Six Paths Sage Mode?”

It’s a thought that niggled in the back of her mind for some time. Her favorite Ootsutsuki ancestor was never associated with the title of Sage of Six Paths, only Hagoromo was. But the tenseigan chakra mode has all the perks of a Six Paths Sage Mode like the amplified speed, strength, stamina, healing, access to all natures including yin and yang releases, the black receivers and the truth-seeking orbs and the really neat capacity for flight.

Hamura gave her a nod before confirming, “Yes. To both of your questions.”

“I honestly thought Hagoromo-sama alone is the Sage of Six Paths.”

For so long, the confirmation of the Uchiha, Senju and Uzumaki Clans being descendants of the Sage of Six Paths has been a topic of displeasure among the Hyuuga.

After the Fourth Shinobi World War, before even the dust could settle, the Hyuuga elders had frothed with anger and envy that the spotlight had mainly been on the Uchiha Clan, Naruto and even the practically dead Senju Clan.

The arrogant and self-important ancient and derelict members of her previous clan's council made their disappointment and discontent known that she, her father, Neji and the rest of the clan who participated in the war had not done to lift the Hyuuga name more.

They thought it an insult that their clan—the supposedly oldest, strongest and noblest clan of Konoha—was not given more attention, more praise. As if they themselves had the right to complain when they contributed nothing to the war efforts.

If they find out that Hamura is also a Sage of Six Paths, well, no doubt it will only inflate the already gigantic ego of the Hyuuga even more.

“Not surprising,” he says with a slight chuckle. “Brother, after all, lived and walked the Earth for most his life and passed on his knowledge to so many people while I mostly resided on the Moon.”

“That does make sense,” Hinata concedes then continues with her brows furrowed. “You and Hagoromo-sama are twins but you seem to have vastly different powers, especially when it comes to ocular abilities. Why is that?”

The white-haired man’s expression turns contemplative before he gives her a response. “After lengthy observation and study, I believe that between us two, my brother inherited more from our human father and the chakra fruit our mother ate while I inherited more of her Ootsutsuki bloodline. These were then passed on to our descendants.”

Intrigued, she looks at him and asks, “What makes you say that?”

“Well, from my brother’s line, the descendants of Asura typically has more chakra and in the case of the Uzumakis, they also benefit from longevity while Indra’s descendants have the sharingan,” he points out. “Emotions—intense emotions such as pain and grief from loss are the driving forces for the sharingan to evolve, are they not? Emotions are something…inherently human. On the other hand, the byakugan that I and my descendants possess are clearly inherited from Mother who has them as her…main eyes—for lack of a better term.”

With comprehension dawning on her face, Hinata breathes out, “So that’s it. That’s why the Hyuuga byakugan won’t evolve like the sharingan. With their Ootsutsuki blood so diluted and their chakra and bodies mostly human by now, the only way a Hyuuga’s byakugan can evolve is if it’s transplanted to an Ootsutsuki body. Just like what Toneri did to my sister’s eyes.”

“That is true. One more proof to support this theory is that all my descendants on the Moon who had quite considerable amounts of Ootsutsuki blood all possessed the byakugan but none of my brother’s descendants ever developed it though they technically have mother’s blood in them as well,” he says.

Then with lips curling up in amusement, he adds, “Until you, that is. But you are a special case, are you not?”

“That’s not—I don’t feel special at all,” Hinata admits softly. “Yes, all the powers I have make things easier and help me significantly in almost everything I do but…There are times when it’s just so hard. So hard…” she trails off with a long, tired exhale.

Her ancestor nods his head, his expression showing understanding and sympathy. “Aa. With great powers comes equal responsibility or sacrifice. A give and a take.”

“Indeed,” she agrees with a wry smile, the words of her ancestor perfectly echoing what the Rabbit Goddess told her lifetimes ago.

* * *

Here are Hinata’s accomplishments so far: She has taught their healers the Mystical Palm Technique. She has helped advance their medicines and ointments by introducing modern ones that she learned from both the Hyuuga and the Nara Clans of the future. The greenhouse gardens that are now all thriving. The education of the Uchiha clan members and the surrounding civilian population regarding proper sanitation and the need to boil water to make it safer, especially for consumption.

She has so many grand ideas from the future and many modern inventions she’d like to try but the lack of the necessary tools and the limits of her knowledge of how to go about making them in the first place make it very difficult. It’s hard to swallow but just because you know the end result does not mean that you can miraculously conjure it.

So, as much as she wants to, it’s a resounding and a very much disappointing no to introducing electricity in the Uchiha household. For although she knows the many sources of it, that electricity passes through conductors such as copper wires—she has absolutely no idea about everything else like generators and power lines. Nor does she have any knowledge on how to make bulbs, electric lamps and many more electric appliances that are very useful and will make life more convenient.

So she settles for the easier but very important things. Like toilet bowls and a simply water supply system.

Though the lavatory of the Main House is…acceptable enough, the rest of the toilets in civilian households of Warring States Era are…horrendous and better left unspoken.

As someone who lived in a more modern and densely populated Konoha and Suna, she knows very well that a proper system for dealing with human waste is of utmost necessity to provide a healthy and safe living environment for everyone, to protect the natural resources such as soil and water and to provide dignity to people when they have to conduct their business in the privy.

The toilet bowl is easy enough. All she has to do is draw an image of it and look for a potter.

She finds many of them in the civilian quarters surrounding their territory and with the Uchiha name, she easily gets their willingness to assist her on her project.

It only takes about a week and she has five sample toilet bowls from five different potters. Three are made of clay and passable enough but the last two are perfect. They’re made of both clay and glaze fired together, making the whole clay body turn glassy so the end product toilet is both waterproof and stainproof and will last longer.

Unlike the greenhouse project, it doesn’t take long to convince her father this time to introduce the improved toilet bowls. With the enthusiastic help of the same builders who helped with the greenhouses, within another week, they have a more modern, more humane privy chamber in the Uchiha Main House.

Within the next three months, almost every household of the clan members have improved lavatories and she has very happy and more wealthy friends in the pottery business eager to help in more projects of hers anytime.

The supposedly simple water supply system project is…a bit more complicated.

Yes, they have deep wells and small, fresh water rivers and streams from the mountains surrounding their territory which can be used as water sources but they don’t have gifted Metal or Steel Release users who can help make the project easier by creating the necessary storage tanks or water pipes.

There are only a few metalsmiths in the surrounding lands and sadly, all of them only either create ninja weapons or tools for everyday household use and for farming and constructions works.

She already went to the city of Sora-ku and presented the idea to three metalsmiths that the Uchiha Clan has fixed arrangements with. She has shown them drawings of a water storage tank and pipes and received nods and all kinds of platitudes that they’ll work on it but so far, she has not seen even a shadow of a single pipe.

* * *

“Hina, make sure to check with your byakugan once every fifteen minutes,” Izuna instructed before muttering under his breath, “With our two asshole cousins and our shitty female client, I'd rather not have this already damned mission go even more pear-shaped.”

“Relax, Nii-san,” His little sister said with a small smile while patting his arm in consolation. “Soon we’ll reach the border then their home and hopefully we’ll never see them again.”

Izuna growled darkly, “The husband is an idiot, the woman’s a bitch and this mission sucks. How the hell do you manage to keep a polite façade in front of them?”

“Well, they’re nothing but strangers and passersby in our lives. Why be upset when they’re of no real importance to us?” Hinata asked with a shrug.

Izuna snorted then turned his attention on the road ahead of them.

They’re currently on a mission to escort a wealthy tea merchant, his absolutely maddening wife and their small retinue from the Fire’s Capital to their home in the Land of Tea. Their travel was slow due to the many complaints from the wife ranging from tasteless food, weariness and needing to rest, needing to do her private business in the woods or just plain whining about anything and everything.

What the male client saw in the infuriating woman that led him to marrying her or bringing her with him while on a business trip, Izuna would never understand.

To add to his torment, he also had to put up with their cousin Setsuna and his snide comments and their pervy cousin Atsuo who kept giving Hinata lovesick looks.

They’re almost to the border separating Fire and Tea and approximately a week away from their destination and he already wanted to either pull the client’s bitch wife’s ugly dirty blonde hair until she’s bald or punch the daylights out of his two irritating cousins and leave them in a ditch somewhere.

“Nii-san,” he heard his younger sister call out.

“What is it?” he asked, both mind and body alert when he saw the grave look on her face as soon as she neared his side.

“A small settlement seventeen kilometers ahead is being attacked by bandits. Nine armed men. Six of them with moderately active chakra systems.”

Izuna nodded his head and sighed. “Alright then. Let’s continue moving forward. Keep watch of the situation and if it’s still not over when we’re close by ten kilometers, we’ll stop and wait it out until they’re gone.”

“What’s wrong?” he asked when he saw his younger sister’s face darken after his command. It was an unexpected reaction, from his calm and gentle sibling who’s normally in agreement with him.

“Let me go deal with them,” she said, her voice low and her pale byakugan eyes and the veins at her temples looking particularly harsh.

Izuna has known for a long time that his sister has the penchant to help those she saw or thought were in need and admired her greatly for it. But they have their own mission to mind and its own challenges to face. He couldn’t afford to let her put herself in more danger.

“No. I can’t let you do that,” he denied the request. “We have our own mission. We have to think first of the protection of our clients and ourselves. And you know what Father will say when he finds out. Besides, what would be the point? What’s happening is none of our business.”

“The point? Several lives Nii-san. Not just men but also helpless women and innocent children,” Hinata retorted in an uncharacteristically cold tone.

Izuna lowered his face, unable to meet his younger sister's piercing eyes. It made him feel ashamed—that despite his constant criticism of the disparity of life and the senseless violence around them, it had been so very easy for him to disregard the same violence being done to defenseless and innocent people just kilometers ahead of them.

“There’s no danger for our team and our clients in the twenty kilometer radius. Let me go deal with it. It’ll be quick, I promise.”

Torn between agreeing and denying her plea, he ran a hand down his face in exasperation. “Hinata I understand but this is…Your safety is important to me. And you know very well how Father will react if he hears of this. He’ll blow up again, of that I’m sure.”

“Then you and I can keep it between us, Nii-san. I can go and we can use scouting the area as an excuse so our cousins wouldn’t know. As for safety—you know my speed. You know what I’m capable of. Let me go now. The longer I stay the more damage the bandits will cause the civilians.”

Izuna grabbed his sister’s shoulder. “Fine. Fine. But make sure to keep yourself safe Hina. If something happens to you, Father and Nii-san will kill me on the spot. And if I get to live, Tatsuya will no doubt try to get rid me the first chance I go to sleep.”

“Don’t worry dear brother. I’ll try to finish it within three to five minutes, ten the most. I’ll return and you’ll live for decades more until you’re old and wrinkled and all your precious hair’s white or gone.”

With a choked laugh, Izuna watched his sister disappear.


	23. Fateful Encounters

Pulling to a stop on a branch of one of the few trees surrounding the small settlement, Hinata took out some bandages from her ninja pouch and went about rolling it around her head to cover her eyes and the bulging veins at her temples while at the same time taking note of the positions of the bandits with her byakugan.

They were located near the center of the tiny village, in an area that looked to be the trading post based on the small stalls displaying goods such as foodstuffs, fabrics, pottery and other knickknacks.

It was evident that the place had little to nothing in the way of defenses. Already there were six civilian casualties, all of them bloodied and lying motionless on the ground, while a few more were suffering from different sorts of injuries.

The bandits on the other hand looked unharmed and continued with their acts of terror. Two of them were holding— _fondling_ two pretty young women who were whimpering in fear while another two kept three crying young children as hostages, occasionally hitting them with the flat of their swords whenever they pleased. The rest were prowling about the small area with their weapons drawn out, grinning and making terrible sounds like a bunch of rabid hyenas while collecting money or goods from the grim-faced and stony-eyed civilians.

Her makeshift mask secured in place, she performed the hand seals for shadow clones, creating five of them in the process. Deciding to take on the four keeping the young women and children as hostages, she instructed the five clones to immobilize the remaining five bandits before going into action.

She teleported and appeared in the middle of the hostages and, before any of them could recover from their surprise at seeing her appear out of thin air, she immediately performed one-handed Air Palms on the two who’s been abusing the children, sending them flying in the air, before rapidly closing the distance and delivering Palm Heel Strikes to the chests of the other two molesting the girls.

The young girls and the children immediately scrambled to safety, leaving her alone in the middle of the small square with the knocked out bandits at her feet. She crouched down and had the tenketsu points in their arms and legs blocked before tying them all up with ninja wires to ensure the louts will not have any chance to attack or escape if they somehow manage to gain consciousness. Standing up after she finished, she saw that her clones have also easily handled their assigned targets with all other five outlaws soon down on the ground, also unconscious and bound.

Noticing the deathly silence that enveloped the area, she looked around and noticed the dark and unfriendly expressions on the faces of the people around her. Ignoring the mild discomfort she felt from their gazes, she deactivated the mangekyou and activated byakugan on both eyes to check on the wounded better.

Some of them looked serious and required healing else their situations would go worse. Knowing she’ll need some time, she got rid of four of her clones and instructed the last one to continue acting as her and reunite with her brother to keep him from worrying too much.

She next approached one bleeding man to offer healing him only to jump back a little to dodge the stream of saliva he spat in her direction.

“A fucking shinobi,” the man gritted out, scowling. “What do you want from our little village, little girl? Or is it boy? I can’t tell with that cover around your eyes. You shinobi have the habit of making fools of us simple folks.”

She raised her hands to placate the angry man and show she was unarmed before offering, “I only mean to help. I can heal your wounds.”

“You? Help?” an old man from among the spectating group snorted disbelievingly. “You shinobi lot are all the same—thieves, liars and murderers. Even little children just like you. You offer a little help when you want, only to come back and milk us of our money and resources over and over again. If you really mean to help little girl, name your price for what you’ve done so we can give it to you and you can be on your way.”

Hinata didn't let the hostility get to her. She knew and understood very well how many shinobi could be deliberately cruel or simply thoughtless of what the consequences of their actions were to the civilians around them. This particular settlement must have experienced repeated suffering in the hands of those who were of the intentionally unpleasant kind.

Putting as much calm and kindness in her voice, she addressed them all. “I don’t require payment for my actions. Truly. If you will, allow me to heal your wounded then I’ll leave this place right and never return.”

“Piss off with your healing. We can take care of our own, as we always have. Go away and leave us be, girl,” a middle-aged woman spat with a stony look in her eyes.

“Alright, I understand,” she said with a sigh. “Again, I require no payment. But just to let you know, those bandits are still alive. They’ll stay unconscious for hours, perhaps the entire day.”

She took a scroll from her pouch and released the small box of vials of medicines and ointments inside the seal. She now made sure to carry some of them with her always in case of emergencies.

“Here are some medicines along with instructions on how to use them. Some of these will help cleanse and ensure your injuries will not rot and grow worse while others will help hasten healing. Take it, please,” she gave the box to the wounded man who huffed before reluctantly taking it from her.

She looked around one last time and felt better when she saw that some of the faces were less hostile now. But it’s clear they still wanted her out of their tiny village as soon as possible so she gave them a polite bow. “It’s probably worth nothing to you but, for what it’s worth, I am sorry for whatever pain or loss you’ve experienced in the hands of shinobi and wish you all good fortune moving forward.”

She’s about to reactivate her mangekyou in preparation for leaving when she heard a frail voice call out.

“Wait! Wait, girl!”

She turned to the direction where the voice came from and saw an old, woman holding the hand of a little boy separating from the rest of the crowd. Some of their fellow villagers tried to hold them back but the aged woman was stubborn and comically whacked them all away with her cane. She continued to hobble with the child doing his best to follow after her.

When they finally stopped in front of her, the old woman gave her a shrewd look from top to bottom with her ancient, rheumy eyes while the little boy looked up at her with wide, amazed eyes, making Hinata stop breathing and feeling like she’d lost all of the strength in her legs.

The vivid blue eyes, the spiky blonde hair, the face.

By the gods, but the child looked so much like a little version of the Yondaime Hokage, Naruto and her children.

“You’re a shinobi, young but strong. Very strong indeed. You got rid of those bandits so very easily even without sight,” the old woman said in an approving voice, pulling Hinata from her spiraling thoughts.

“Our little village barely scrapes by, girly,” the old woman continued. “We’re constantly besieged by bandits and rogue shinobi alike but those we can stomach well enough. If you really want to help us like you said earlier, then take care of the vile demon that haunts our land.”

“Vile demon?” Hinata asked with little interest, her attention still stuck on the boy.

“People have long said it lives in an old shrine in the forest, near the base of the mountains." The old woman pointed her cane to a direction in the distance where the peaks of a mountain range could be seen.

It was a real struggle to take her eyes off of the child but she forcibly lifted her gaze to carefully scan the place the old woman pointed at and, after a few seconds, saw the aforementioned old shrine. However, her byakugan failed to catch a glimpse of what’s inside. Aside from a powerful genjutsu, there also seemed to be a barrier seal hiding whatever’s inside of it.

“It’s a true terror, I tell you,” the woman went on. “It’s a bane to our livelihood and has prevented us from doing many things for many years now. It’s killed some of our hunters, my poor son included, and it’s keeping our people from mining, chopping trees, trapping and hunting game for food and fur for the winters. We don’t have the money to pay you now but kill the damned beast and we’ll forever be in your debt. We’ll pay you every moon, every year if need be.”

She heard the murmurs from the crowd increase in volume and when she looked at them, she saw hopeful faces and heads nodding in agreement at the old woman’s proposition.

The old man from before stepped forward and with an eager expression said, “Yes! Yes! Do it for us little kunoichi and we’ll pay you with a portion of our income in the years to come.”

“Can you tell me more about this demon please?” Hinata queries, a suspicion starting to form in back of her mind.

“None has really seen the abomination in the light of day—it is said to only appear at night. Like I said, it has killed many of our people so there’s not much to say. But there are old rumors that it’s a red or black fox with a thousand tails. Inari-sama’s messenger foxes are supposed to be pure white so this one must have been cursed and banished by the goddess from her side,” the old woman answered, adding more proof to Hinata’s suspicion.

Kurama! It could only be him. There’s no other multiple-tailed red-orange fox that she knew of in existence. And how serendipitous was it that the nine-tailed fox was living so closely with a little Yondaime and Naruto look-alike?

“So what say you, little girl?” the old woman asked, pulling back her attention once more.

Hinata remained silent for a long while, torn between wanting to stay and getting to know the child and leaving to possibly meet the fox.

“Afraid little kunoichi? Can’t help us after all?” the wounded man who spat at her asked with a condescending tone.

Hinata recognized the guilt trip tactic for what it is but simply ignored it.

It’s…disgraceful how they’re trying to use her—a shinobi, yes, but still a child—to kill a beast they’re all afraid of but she understood and could not, would not, hold it against them.

She knew how it’s like to live in fear of powerful monsters that could destroy lives without a thought. She knew the misery, the hopelessness, the desperation and the ways it can drive people into twisted versions of themselves just to survive and protect those precious to them. She had gone through the same situation countless times.

The residents of the tiny village were no different. They’re just a bunch of people unfortunate enough to have gone through many hardships already and were simply trying to take advantage of the opportunity she’s presenting so they could have a better way of living. And she did express willingness to help after all.

She looked at the little boy once more and breathes out, making a decision. “I can’t promise anything but I’ll go and find out what I can do about it.”

Blessed silence reigns after she told them of her choice. It’s apparent in their expressions that they’re not expecting her to agree to the proposal.

“Good. Good,” the old woman said with slow approving nods after a while. “Is there anything you need? Anything to help you with…confronting the beast?” she asks, voice carrying some hesitation all of a sudden.

Hinata shook her head. “No, thank you. I have everything I need.”

The old woman stepped closer and caught her hands. “It’s only right we get to know you. What is your name, girly?”

“I am Hinata,” she introduced herself before stepping forward and bending down to talk to the child, “And you little one, what’s your name?”

The little boy blushed pink and tried to hide behind the old woman’s skirt.

“Hinata, eh? A pretty name. This little imp is Haruto,” the old woman gave her a toothless grin before gently pushing the little boy forward, “And I am Seiko.”

Haruto. Minato. Naruto. Boruto. How very nostalgic, Hinata thought, her chest constricting. “And your family name?” she asks, holding her breath for the answer.

The old woman barked a laugh. “What need would we have for family names? We’re just poor folks. Not from shinobi clans like you.”

Swallowing her disappointment, Hinata gently smiled at the little boy. “It’s nice to meet you Haruto-kun.”

“How can you fight when your eyes are covered?” Haruto blurted out. “Are you really blind? Or do you have shinobi powers that allow you to see behind those bandages? Can you teach me? I don’t want to be a shinobi. I just want to be strong too…I want to…I want to protect everyone from…all the bad people, you know?” He squirmed and looked down with flushed cheeks after. He simply looked adorable.

A Namikaze. He didn't have the name yet but the child or his descendants would surely use the Namikaze name one day. He’ll grow up to be the ancestor of the Fourth and Naruto. She’s certain of it.

Feeling her throat closing up Hinata reached for the child and gently cradled his handsome little face in her own small hands. “You don’t have to be a shinobi to be strong,” she assures him. “I’ll have to go deal with the…whatever’s in that shrine but I will return, someday, and I’ll look for you and teach you so you can protect your precious people.”

“You promise?” he asked, blue eyes wide and full of hopeful.

“Yes. You have my word,” she told him before pushing herself to her feet. “I must go now,” she informed them. She needed to leave before she did something even more strange in the eyes of the civilians. She’s also mindful of the situation she’s willingly put herself in and how limited the time she has of doing it. The clone she sent to Izuna was still holding up nicely and would do so for a long while but complications could happen.

“I know it’s a mighty dangerous task we’re asking of you, Hinata-chan,” Seiko said, the expression on her face solemn and her eyes apologetic, “But…we have no other choice, you see? This land is our home so we cannot just leave it behind and shinobi just come and go, taking whatever they want from us, not offering any help. Only you did.”

“I understand. There’s no need for you to further explain, Seiko-san.”

The woman noded her head once more, face looking grateful. “You have my thanks. But if you do encounter the beast and you think you can’t win, girly, then run for your life. It’s fine to be afraid and choose to save yourself, you understand? No need for a senseless death.”

“Yes, thank you. I need to go now."

“I pray for your success,” Seiko said before reaching and squeezing her hand once more then letting her go.

"Thank you," Hinata said with a nod. With one last glance at Haruto’s hopeful face and a deep breath to gather herself and control her emotions, she vanished.

* * *

She rematerialized just several meters away from the main entrance of the ancient shrine.

It’s an enormous one—easily as tall as the Hokage monument. Most of it appeared to be carved deep into the base of the mountain itself but time clearly had done its part and now the front part of the massive structure which juts out like a snout was crumbling in many places. Just a few decades more and she’s certain it’ll all be nothing but rubble down on the ground.

Her earlier perception was proven correct when she took a closer look. Even though the huge door was wide open, both her byakugan and sharingan could now see the multiple layers of barrier seals and an intricate genjutsu which prevents trespassers from simply entering.

In all honesty, despite it being one of the most natural and powerful techniques of the sharingan, Hinata had never developed a taste for genjutsu. In fact, she never bothered weaving even a single illusion. Her past memories were enough for her, no need to add more false ones. Still, even without rigorous training, her mangekyou had the natural affinity to recognize, pierce through or dispel a powerful genjutsu and the one in the shrine was easily destroyed. The seals, she decided to leave alone for some form of protection.

As soon as the genjutsu barrier was down, her byakugan catch an outline of the very familiar, frighteningly powerful and highly corrosive chakra deep inside the cavernous mountain shrine.

It was indeed Kurama.

The fox was situated in the middle of what looked to be a colossal hall with a dome-like ceiling, resting. The walls had many symbols etched on them and there were also large stone statues of horned beings she knew for sure were meant to depict the members of the Ootsutsuki Clan.

After removing the bandage covering her eyes, she decided to err on the side of caution and quickly tapped on the seal on her chest which locked Hamura’s chakra inside of her. She allowed her ancestor’s chakra to wash over her before slowly combining with her own chakra reserves.

In her previous lives, Kurama was able to recognize the chakra Hamura had gifted her. But those lives were different from the present. Right now, the most formidable tailed beast must still be deep in the sea of hostility and distrust due to humanity’s centuries of negative treatment of him. She hoped fervently that the ill-tempered fox would recognize her Ootsutsuki-mixed chakra once more. If not, well then, she’d just have to make a hasty escape.

She waited with her byakugan wide open and her breath caught in her throat as the great fox slowly awakened from his slumber. The moment when he realized that someone had disturbed his abode, the fox snarled angrily into the air, letting out a muffled roar with his wide open maw showing his wickedly sharp fangs.

With equal parts excitement and trepidation, Hinata purposefully let more chakra leak out of her in waves so the ancient fox would be able to sense Hamura's chakra.

She witnessed the moment when he sensed it. Kurama snapped his massive mouth shut and stopped moving for a long while, his feral red eyes narrowed and facing her direction. Then, slowly, he rose to his four paws and slinked like an overgrown cat to the door.

Digging her heels on the ground, Hinata remained standing and waited for the fox to appear.

“Brat,” Kurama’s harsh and booming voice called out, his large snout then his entire face sticking out of the entrance while the rest of his enormous body remained hidden inside of the old shrine. “I assume you know what I am or you won’t be here standing like an idiot in front of me. How is it that a puny-looking little girl like you has that familiar chakra, hm?”

“I’m so glad to meet you again, Kurama,” she greeted the cranky beast with a tremulous smile forming on her lips.

She’s never been especially close to the fox but he’s been a part of her family’s life during those times she was married to Naruto. The bijuu held a special place not just in the heart of her former husband but in the hearts of her children too. Which was why meeting him again was such a relief…a release. Here was one creature who, at the very least, despite not having the memories, was almost the same as he was those lifetimes ago.

The bijuu’s red eyes narrowed even more. “No one has said my name in centuries, little girl. And I am certain I’ve never met you before. Who are you?”

“I am Hinata,” she introduced herself once with a polite bow to show her respect to the fox who has endured human hatred for so long.

Kurama lowered his head to the ground and continued to look at her with piercing eyes. “You have Hyuuga eyes and Ootsutsuki Hamura’s chakra but I also sense Hagoromo and his son Indra’s blood. You know my name. I can sense that you hold no hatred or fear for me. You’re in fact happy to see me—a first in almost a thousand years. I don’t like being in the dark, brat, so you better have a good explanation for this strange turn of events or I’ll make a meal out of you.”

“It is a very, very long story Kurama,” she said with a long sigh.

“Tch. And I have all the time in the world. Come and show me.”

Nodding her head in acknowledgement of the bijuu’s words, Hinata stepped forward and climbed the derelict stone stairs of the shrine before dropping herself to sit on the dusty floor in front of the suspicious and glowering fox.


	24. The Princess and the Fox

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I woke up and I realized it's December 27th! Hyuuga Hinata's birthday! So I just had to post this despite the rather hectic real-life schedule. Hope you like it :) 
> 
> Happy Holidays everyone and a better, healthier 2021 to all of us! 🙏🙏🙏💝💝💝 🎊 🎊 🎊

An oral account of everything she witnessed and experienced throughout her many lifetimes was obviously out of the window. Such an act would take tremendous amounts of effort and time which she simply didn’t have. Moreover, words were simply…insufficient and no doubt far too dry to described or explain it all.

They didn’t have knowledge of any of the Yamanaka Clan’s Mind Techniques for easier mind reading or memory transfer but thankfully, there’s _ninshu_ —the practice of using chakra to make a connection, understand and feel other people’s emotions—and this was what they decided to use instead.

It was difficult on her part as she never initiated _ninshu_ with others before. The very few experiences she had were all because of Naruto.

Luckily, Kurama was a centuries-old being who had loads of stored knowledge from his time with the Sage of Six Paths who pioneered the ancient art and a natural sensor to boot.

Between the two of them, it was the fearsome bijuu who easily linked their spiritual energies and once the bond was formed, all Hinata had to do was guide him through the more important parts of her memories.

She mostly focused on her recollections of a younger Naruto, what little she knew of the Akatsuki, the Fourth Shinobi World War, the appearance and subsequent attacks from even more Ootsutsuki many years later, her foolish pact with Kaguya, her time-travel and reincarnation as an Uchiha, her meeting with her twin ancestors, her training with Hamura and finally, the pact between her, Madara and Hashirama.

Kurama’s presence inside her head was a heavy, suffocating thing—something that may have had to do with the enormity and caustic nature of his chakra. The deeper he delved inside her consciousness, the more pressure she felt, the more painful the experience became.

It seemed as though a lifetime had passed before he broke their connection and it’s only when he finally let go that she felt something warm and smelling like iron dripping down mouth and chin. When she touched then looked at the warm liquid, she found that it was blood.

“Reincarnation, huh?” Kurama said gruffly as she wiped the blood trickling down her nose. “Quite the feat but what an utter mess it turned out to be. Kaguya has performed quite the trick on you, Princess. Between you and I right now, I don’t know who’s got a more pathetic story.”

HInata nodded her head in agreement, her lips curling up at the bitter irony of their situation. Here the two of them were—a beast that’s lived almost a thousand years being hated and fighting humans and a human that’s lived countless lives fighting and dying in the hands of monstrous beings. What a pair the two of them made indeed.

“Uzumaki Naruto,” Kurama snorted, his breath a hot gust of air on her face. “He looked and sounded like a real idiot. Not at all what I expected for the Child of Prophecy to be.”

“He wasn’t really,“ Hinata said softly, a feeling of melancholy taking over as she reminisced some of the blonde’s antics, especially when they were younger. She may not have found complete happiness in all the times she was married to Naruto but that didn’t take away the happy memories she had of him, of them.

“He was a great man in his own way. But I agree, he did have his moments,” she continued with a small, genuine smile this time.

“Hmf!” the fox huffed. “A great man but still an idiot. I can’t for the life of me imagine how he convinced me to cooperate with him.”

“Well…my memories are rather limited to my point of view so I guess I understand where your doubts are coming from. But I can assure you, Naruto…He was one of a kind,” she reasoned while meeting the powerful beast’s red eyes.

“You still think the Prophecy will be fulfilled Princess? Do you still think I’ll get to meet him even with all the changes that are bound to happen now that you’ve interfered and muddied the timeline?”

“It’s funny in its own way but…when we were younger…Naruto—he did not believe in destiny. He believed that each one of us has a choice, that we can all become what we want. He convinced me and from then on, I fought with all I had to be the master of my fate and creator of my own destiny,” she confessed. “But after going through everything that I’ve gone through…It seems to me that some things in life we can change and others are just meant to happen.”

“Hmmm. Perhaps you’re right, perhaps not. One thing’s for certain though: Those damned Ootsutsukis will surely come,” the fox growled, sharp teeth gnashing as his anger suddenly flared up.

She heard his tails make thumping noises inside the shrine and felt his destructive chakra snap and crackle like lightning in the air around them. “Those bastards Momoshiki and Isshiki! How dare they put their hands on me! _Me_! The greatest of the tailed beasts. I’ll destroy them! When the time comes, I’ll make a meal out of them.”

Hinata decided not to interfere and simply let the bijuu vent out his rage for sins committed against him in the past-futures she came from.

It’s a natural reaction, one she understood very well and actually expected. The mighty Kurama, after all, had just witnessed the many ways and instances he disappeared from existence. Like how Ootsutsuki Isshiki pushed him and Naruto to the limit, forcing them to use the deadly Baryon Mode and dying in the process. Or how he was extracted from Naruto before he was reduced to nothing but a fist-sized chakra pill for the Oootsutsuki Momoshiki to devour and add to his power.

Thankfully, after a short while of him declaring his plans of vengeance, the bijuu’s temper died down and the overpowering, burning haze of his chakra and killing intent receded like the tide.

“Your children,” he went on to say after he’s relatively calmed down, “All your Borutos and Jiraiyas were annoying, mouthy brats just like their father. But your daughters…your little Himawaris—they were quite…lovely.”

“Thank you,” Hinata murmured quietly, the tightness in her chest making it hard to speak the words.

The names of her children brought to life by Kurama’s gruff and hesitant but affectionate voice felt like crushing blows, leaving her heart a twisted, aching mess inside her ribcage once more. The pain still felt excruciating, even after all this time, even after the last few years that she’s become accustomed to carrying the heavy weight of the memories of lifetimes past.

“Like I said, this reincarnation thing is all messed up. You are more than a hundred years off the mark, Princess. How do you plan on saving them, hm?”

She took a few slow breaths to get rid of the constricting feeling in her chest before responding. “This is where I’ll need your help Kurama. I am still human, so no matter how much power I wield, I will die before the right time comes. Or get taken over and disappear inside Kaguya if I don’t find a way to remove this Karma Seal. But you and the other tailed-beasts—you’ll all live on. You will, without a doubt, get to see that time come.”

It’s ironic but, at present, she felt Kurama and the other tailed beasts will be more trustworthy keepers of all her future knowledge. It’s not because she thought less of humanity. No, it’s simply because of the harsh reality that humans live far too short lives and the shinobi world was far too unpredictable.

More than a hundred years was a long, _long_ time and with the way shinobi clans and, subsequently, future shinobi villages operated through secrecy, manipulation and betrayal, all sorts of shitty things could happen.

Like world wars for example. Like clans going extinct. Like cities and shinobi villages falling into ruins. Like Hashirama dying once more for some unknown reason. Like Tobirama sacrificing himself for a bunch of teens who’d grow old into either incompetent fools like the Third or power-hungry ones like Danzo and his ilk. Like the Akatsuki being formed. Like Madara going mad and plotting his Eye of the Moon Plan.

With all the possible events—all the unexpected conflicts and the bloodshed that may occur in the span of a century—any intel she passed on was in danger of being considered by the shinobi world as nothing but a useless tale over time.

The tailed beasts were the key. They were more dependable not only because they’ll live longer than her, they’re also powerful enough to keep the knowledge safe. Moreover, they didn't have to worry about affiliations like clans and villages and nations. They can remain impartial entities until such time came when they have to help humanity fight off the Ootsutsuki invaders.

“For survival’s sake, Princess, I will help. But do not think for a moment that I will allow anyone to seal me again. I refuse to be caged like some lowly animal, do you hear me? Not by a damned Uchiha and not even by an Uzumaki,” the fox ended with a snarl.

“Of course Kurama,” Hinata swiftly assured the bijuu. “What you want is perfectly understandable. I too am a vessel in danger of losing my own freedom like you had in the past, so believe me when I say I fully understand where you’re coming from. I give you my word, I will do everything in my power so you and the others don’t suffer the fate of being sealed and used as mere weapons of war.”

The fox tilted his head and looked at her with calculating red eyes for a long moment before grumbling. “Hn. _To never go back on your word_ , that is your nindo, is it not? Very well, Princess, I’ll take your word for it. Just make sure also that Madara doesn’t try anything this time around. If he does, you can be sure that I’ll teach the entire Uchiha Clan the true meaning of regret.”

Hinata gave him a firm nod. “Of course. That goes without saying.”

“So what do you plan to do moving forward? What do you intend to do with the other tailed beasts?”

“Once the Senju and the Uchiha make peace, I’ll disclose what I know to my brothers and the Senju brothers, possibly including the heads of the major noble clans that will join the village we plan to create. After that, I plan to travel and find the others. Shukaku, I am certain, is in the Land of Wind, so that’s a start. There’s a possibility he might already be a captive when I get to him but if he is, I’ll just…free him. Saiken might be somewhere in the Land of Water. As for the others, I don’t have any idea but…Hamura-sama might be able to help. That’s really all I have for now.”

“When you do, I’ll travel with you,” the fox says, his tone not allowing for any argument.

“Ummm…Are you going to keep your current size or are you going to assume a different form?” she asked with concern. Imagining herself traveling with a bijuu the size of a mountain is not a pretty picture. It’s asking for trouble and basically putting a wide target on her back.

“What? You think I’m a fool? Of course I’ll shift to a smaller form.”

“Aa, alright. That’s good. I’ll be glad to have your company on my future travels, Kurama, but for now, I must leave,” she said while getting up on her feet. “I still have a mission to complete so I cannot stay any longer. But I will be back.”

“Tch, you better, Princess,” he said gruffly. “For centuries I had to deal with nothing but filthy scums and idiots. It’s about time I have a decent conversation with one of your kind.”

But of course. With humanity only seeing a monster to be hated, feared and destroyed, how long has it been since the fox had a normal, non-violent interaction with someone? Decades? Centuries?

Hinata could not help but pat the fox’s massive snout in sympathy. “I’ll return as soon as I can, Kurama,” she promised. “But I have a request, if you please.”

“A request? So soon?” the fox asked mockingly. “This better not be the start of an abusive relationship, Princess.”

“No. I…It is a simple request. Or at least that’s what I think.”

“Go on. Say it then.”

“There’s a settlement not too far from here. They need to access the forest for livelihood. I was hoping you would…let them without causing them harm.”

“Absolutely not!” the fox immediately responded. “This shrine and the surrounding land is mine. It has been my haven for centuries. The humans are the ones who are invading my territory and constantly go through stupid acts of trying to kill or drive me away. I’m merely returning the favor.”

“Please Kurama,” she pleaded while meeting irate red orbs. “I know how you feel about humankind and you are within your rights to feel that way. But this community…They’re rather small and vulnerable and in need of much help. They need the surrounding forest for livelihood, for trapping and hunting prey for food and fur. They also need to be able to cut some of the trees for lumber and timber.”

“No, Princess,” the Kyuubi answered harshly, his expression even more menacing. “I’ve lived long enough to know that when you give humans a small concession, they’ll eventually take advantage of you. If I allow those scums and fools to do whatever they want, it won’t be long before they attempt to take everything.”

“Is there anything I can do to convince you?” she asked, feeling a little desperate in the face of his refusal. “Anything at all that will make you change your mind?”

For a few long moments, Kurama looked down at her with scrutinizing eyes before letting out a loud chuckle. “No wonder Kaguya made a fool of you. You are just as selflessly foolish as your idiot of a husband.”

“I will allow your request in one condition,” the fox continued with a rather nasty grin showing his impressive set of fangs. “You’ve inherited some rather interesting bloodline from both the old man and his younger brother. I’ve been bored for centuries, Princess. Fight me.”

Hinata blanched at the proposition. “I can’t!”

“What? Scared of the big, bad fox Princess? And here I thought you were different,” he said condescendingly, making her wince inwardly.

“It’s not that I am scared of you Kurama,” Hinata answered with all the sincerity she could muster. “It’s that…Well, I know how powerful you are and I still haven’t fully mastered my own. Also, if we do fight, wherever will we do it? A clash between us will be certain to attract a lot of attention and cause a lot of damage—two things we can’t afford to do right now with the clans still warring. It will simply hasten many clans to try to capture and seal you and most likely use you for their own benefit,” she tried to reason out.

A simple unfurling of Kurama’s destructive chakra outside of the confines of the barrier seals or a tailed beast bomb from out of his mouth and any sensor worth their salt within miles will know of his presence.

Senju Tobirama, one of the world's greatest sensors of all time, would definitely know. The sensors of the Uchiha Clan would know too. Add the Uzumakis of Uzushio, with their natural affinity for sensing chakra and many more talented sensory shinobi across the Land of Fire and possibly from neighboring states.

If that happened, she could already imagine the debacle that would soon follow: A bloody hunt for Kurama and the rest of his powerful siblings.

Anyone with the thirst for power would surely join the damned race and with her father’s and Senju Butsuma’s intense desire to destroy each other, she’s positive both men would do everything they could to have a tailed beast under their control.

_That, absolutely, cannot happen._

Kurama let out a loud snort after a while. “Fair enough. Then I guess we have no deal, Princess.”

Closing her eyes and heaving a sigh, Hinata finally noded her head in acceptance.

“I understand. Thank you Kurama, for giving me the chance to share my burdens with you,” she told the fox sincerely. “I must go now. I’ll come visit as soon as I can.”

Better to accept defeat and step back for now than to continue to press forward, upset the cynical fox and cause him to stubbornly dig his four paws deeper. She’ll just have to try another time until he eventually gives in.


	25. Terrible Things

His breaths turned into short, frantic pants, Tatsuya swerved on a tree branch to avoid a hail of sharp blades, almost losing his balance and falling in the process. Biting back a cry of pain when he felt two _senbon_ stab on his back and a _kunai_ graze his left arm, he strained his already overused _sharingan_ and pumped even more chakra to his legs and feet to increase his chances of escaping from the two Senju bastards pursuing and trying to kill him.

What a terrible hand fate has dealt him and his cousins tonight.

Their mission was a simple one: Deliver a scroll to a rich noble living in the Capital. He and his cousins Hiro and Akio were already on their way home when they encountered the enemies.

It had been a most dreadful surprise. The Senju scums appeared out of nowhere and pounced on them like beasts while they were resting. They attacked without mercy, leaving his poor cousins as nothing but fresh, mangled corpses on the ground, their lifeblood watering and enriching the earth.

The killing intent emanating from the two Senju was so palpable he was sure he could cut it with a kunai had he the time to do so. They were clearly way stronger than he was and with them looking far older than the average shinobi—one around late twenties and the other around late thirties or forties—they’re bound to have enough knowledge or experience fighting and killing a _sharingan_ wielder.

To make his already dire situation even worse, they also appeared fresh while he had already lost about half his chakra from the run earlier in the day. There’s no way he could fight and win. If he fought, he knew exactly what the result would be: He’d be a cold corpse come dawn—just like his poor cousins.

It’s cowardly of an Uchiha, especially one borne of the Head Family, but running was the best path to survival at the moment. He did not want to die yet. He was only twelve, gods damn it all. _Twelve!_ He wanted to live. He wanted to go home and see his family again.

For perhaps the tenth time, Tatsuya deeply regretted having once more ignored his elder brothers’ and Hinata’s old and worn advise of keeping his pride in check.

He wished he'd not been a damned fool. He wished he’d not been stubborn and joined his eldest brother in his mission instead of letting his selfish need to prove he’s better than everyone thought him as take over.

Most of all, he wished his twin was by his side. He’s certain he wouldn’t be facing death right now if Hinata was with him. With her powerful pair of eyes and strength, she would’ve made sure they’re all safe. She would’ve made minced meat of the bloody Senju in a blink of an eye. Hiro and Akio wouldn’t have died. She would’ve made sure they all returned home. Alive.

“Give it up, little brat. You’re just prolonging your own agony,” the younger of the two Senju called out, his mocking tone so loud in the stillness of the night.

“You’re going to die tonight, that’s for certain. Your cursed _sharingan_ may be powerful but we’ve had years of experience killing Uchiha demons, especially little ones like you.”

“Stop playing Nobu,” the older one reprimanded in a harsh, commanding tone. “Catch the brat and kill him already. We have a mission of our own and I’m not about to waste any more time on some Uchiha filth.”

“Ah yes! Of course Butsuma-sama. As you command!” the man named Nobu replied with a nervous tone before increasing speed, his movement audibly displacing the cold air around them.

Tatsuya felt his heart fall to his feet, his body grew cold in acute fear upon hearing that cursed name.

 _Butsuma!_ _Senju Butsuma!_ _One of the strongest of the Senju Clan. Father’s rival in strength._

_No! No! No! I’m dead. I’m dead. I’m dead. Father! Nii-san! Izu-nii! Hinata!_

_Hina! Hina please! Please!_

_Come save me please!_

* * *

“Hinata! Hina! Wake up! Wake up!”

Izuna worriedly shook his screaming sister awake while muffling her mouth with one hand to avoid unnecessary attention. His cousins Setsuna and Atsuo stood by the door and watched on with wary looks painted on their faces, their hands holding blades and theirs posture showing alertness for any sign of danger.

They had safely escorted their clients to their home that afternoon and with their mission pay secured, they’re currently staying at a nice inn to get some rest in preparation for their return home the following day.

They’d rented two rooms with two beds each and had enjoyed nice food and tea and proper baths and were catching up on some sleep when his sister started shaking before letting out whimpers, heart-wrenching sobs and a few screams, jolting them all into awareness. 

“Give her a good smack. It might work,” Setsuna suggested in a lazy drawl, posture relaxing upon seeing that the reason for the commotion was nothing but a nightmare.

His nerves tightly wound with worry for his sibling, Izuna gave the other boy a glare. “That’s the best advice you can give?”

“If you have a better idea, then go ahead. Makes no matter to me. It’s the middle of the night and this is a pain in the ass, so I’ll leave you to it. Try to keep her quiet, won’t you?”

Izuna once more threw a dark scowl at his irritating cousin but the other boy just shrugged indifferently opened the door and left.

“You too can leave, Atsuo. Unless you have a better idea than the arse,” Izuna said then resumed his efforts of waking his little sister with more vigor but to no avail. She remained entrenched in her night terror, letting out whimpers and sobs with sweat and tears running down her face.

Left with no other choice, he tried Setsuna’s advice and with an apology on his lips, he slapped her face with a little force. “Wake up Hina. Come on sweet sister, wake up.”

To his relief, it worked. The terrible sounds she was making stopped and lavender orbs slowly opened.

“N-nii-san?” Hinata asked, voice faint and scratchy and looking disoriented. “Is something the matter? Are you alright?”

Izuna let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Good grief, sister. I’m the one who should be asking you that. You were screaming in your sleep. And you were loud enough to wake even the dead.”

Knowing that his sister’s throat must be parched, he then stood up and went to the small table in a corner where a tray containing some food and a jug of water and two glasses were placed.

“I was?” Hinata sat up and looked around, eyes still filled with confusion

“Yes,” Izuna responded while returning to her side and offering her a glass of water. Hinata took it with a grateful nod and drank with a faraway look in her eyes. She looked to be contemplating something when suddenly, to Izuna’s worry, her face fell and the old, familiar expression of utter sorrow that he hated very much made an appearance upon her visage once more.

“Sorry if I disturbed everyone from sleep,” she said in a whisper.

“You’re alright then?” Atsuo, who remained even after Izuna’s dismissal, asked.

“Hm…Yes, thank you. Please don’t bother yourself with me anymore, Atsuo-kun. You can go back to sleep now.”

When the boy left with the door shut behind him, Izuna laid himself on his sister’s bed and reached for her unoccupied hand.

“What was your nightmare about Hina?” he asked in a concerned, quiet voice. ”I imagine it must’ve been really terrible. You have that…that really awful look on your face again.”

“I…” Hinata paused for a short while before continuing. “I dreamed…I dreamed of... _the_ _lake_.”

Izuna stiffened. There was no need to clarify which lake she was talking about. “What about it?”

Hinata put the empty glass on the wooden floor before laying on the bed facing her brother. “I dreamed that it was filled with blood,” she whispered, her voice barely audible. “I dreamed I was swimming with Kenji and Kiyoshi. And then, I heard Tatsuya scream for me to get out and go to him. But I couldn't see him.”

“It was just a bad dream. One resulting from tiredness from the long journey perhaps.”

Hinata took a shuddering breath. “I don’t feel good Nii-san. I think something’s wrong. I don’t know what it is. I can’t explain it but…I'm especially concerned for Tatsuya.”

Izuna remained silent for a long while, feeling worry also form in the back of his mind. He knew that just like Madara, his little sister possessed pretty good instincts. Her feeling something was off was not a good sign. Not a good sign at all.

Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he reached out and gave his little sister a one-armed hug. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do about anything right now. Best to go back to sleep, sister. Tomorrow, if you want, we can use your teleportation so we can get back home earlier," he offered.

"Yes. Let's do that," Hinata breathed out. "But I don’t think I can go back to sleep at this point. I’ll just keep watch. You go to sleep Nii-san. You need your rest too.”

Obsidian met lavender gaze. When he saw resoluteness in her eyes, Izuna decided to let the matter drop. “Alright then.”

He kissed her on the forehead and released her from his embrace before making himself comfortable on the bed. “I’m not in the mood to get up so I’m now sleeping here,” he declared through a yawn. “Good night Hina, or is it good morning now? Maa, whatever.”

* * *

When Izuna’s breathing evened out, Hinata stood up and went to sit on the unoccupied bed. Taking long, deep breaths, she took on a meditative pose, hoping the exercise would help get rid of the inexplicable fear she felt from her nightmare as well as reduce the tiredness and fairly high level stress she’s been experiencing the past three days.

Meeting and having been able to share her story with Kurama had been an advantage. Failing to persuade him to grant the people access in the surrounding forest he claimed as his territory was a problem.

Knowing very well that a negative answer so soon would only dishearten the people of the small settlement and most likely turn them against her even more, Hinata decided to postpone her return and rejoined her brother’s group to continue their mission instead.

She needed time to think of a plan on how to approach either issues—the first that of convincing the cranky fox to cede some control over his lands and second dealing with the what alternative to give to the people should she continue to fail.

Until now, she still hasn’t come up with a solution and it’s becoming very frustrating. Here she was, bearer of a mangekyou sharingan and a tenseigan with all the powers that came with them and she’s feeling as if she’s drowning and not accomplishing anything truly significant.

To add to her growing pile of problems, her breasts have also started feeling sore and she’s been suffering cramps—clear signs of her monthly period starting all over again.

Menstruation—such a normal process but what terrible plague to the female kind.

_Monthly bleeding. Bothersome curves. Heavy breasts. Hairs in uncomfortable places that would need to be removed or tamed. A week of discomfort and strange moods swings. Unwanted male attention._

She was so not looking forward to any of it.

The signs of her upcoming first menstruation had also been a rude awakening to even more important issues.

She’d been so preoccupied with many plans for the future and had busied herself with finding solutions to all the problems she’s facing that she’s completely forgotten about what being a grown up woman and an heiress with strong blood in a _shinobi_ clan with _kekkei_ _genkai_ meant.

_Courtships. Arranged marriages. Children to continue the bloodline and keep the clan strong._

These, too, she wasn’t keen on dealing with. She’s had enough of marriages and children. Has already had her fill of heartaches and loss, thank you very much.

If her father ever showed signs of wanting to marry her off to one of her cousins to pass on the strong blood and the possibility of even more powerful _doujutsu_ , if he tried to force her into an unwanted marriage for an alliance…

She’ll assassinate him, go for Senju Butsuma’s head next so Madara and Hashirama could finally make peace, tell them the truth she’s been keeping for more than a decade now then go on that journey with Kurama and disappear for years.


End file.
